WASHINGTON-Industry participants in a Jan. 21 open forum to review the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau’s rules and performance during the past two years agree that while the WTB has come a long way in coping with a new and diverse competitive scenario, it still has to improve parts of its regulatory stance and licensing procedures.
The Federal Communications Commission currently is fulfilling a congressional mandate to review itself and its bureaus every two years beginning this year, and deputy general counsel David Solomon applauded the WTB for preparing its strategies for reform ahead of schedule by releasing a series of notices of inquiry and notices of proposed rulemakings in 1997 for possible implementation this year. In addition, certain “overregulatory” rules have been under scrutiny, and new licensing forms-a unified assignment and transfer form, in particular-are being developed to help streamline a sometimes backlogged process. Despite these pro-active moves, WTB chief Dan Phythyon said, “It is clear that we can do more.” Phythyon said that the days of the microfiche at the FCC are almost over, and that a demonstration of new electronic-filing and information-retrieval programs tentatively is scheduled for March 19.
Mark Golden of the Personal Communications Industry Association commented, “The WTB constantly must grapple with the contention of `he who governs best governs least,’ while reconciling that things still have to get done. There has been a stripping away of regulations, but what is needed is a proper attitude toward forbearance requests.” Golden added that “preserving safety nets for outdated rules” ends up costing carriers money, infrastructure and towers, and that while these issues are “complex and divisive, the WTB needs to focus and narrow its scope.”
Golden also suggested that the WTB set up some kind of “expedited and streamlined” process for conflict resolution in cases of interference, and he volunteered PCIA’s clearinghouse as a possible help. Other issues upon which the WTB should spend additional time in the near future, Golden said, include the cumulative impact of fees and charges on carriers, universal service (“frustrating, difficult and costly”) and ownership and spectrum-cap rules.
Randy Coleman of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association asked the bureau to concentrate on streamlining its data-collection methodology and to modify its licensing rules.
Former Private Radio Bureau chief Ralph Haller, who now heads consulting firm Fox Ridge Communications Inc., noted that development of the commission’s web site has helped streamline FCC practices, and that licensing backlogs have lessened while speed of service has improved. However, he voiced concerns regarding the WTB’s handling of refarming.
“The industry was thrown in to refarming without it being done or all issues resolved,” he said. “It is difficult for coordinators to implement trunking. They are not sure when or if new Telecommunications Industry Association standards should be applied, and this could lead to interference on private land mobile channels. Private radio is not getting the attention the commercial mobile radio service is getting, and the WTB should pay more attention to the private and public-safety sides.” Haller suggested that the bureau sponsor an open forum for frequency coordinators to resolve standards issues and to provide more guidance.
Haller also mentioned that the bureau needs to move faster in its decision-making. “The industry needs to know how to go forward, and it sometimes takes months or years for the FCC to make a decision. Just make them quickly and let the industry run,” he said. CMRS and private-radio rules should conform, Haller concluded, because paging carriers, for instance, find it hard to follow both common carrier and private carrier paging rules; he advised staffers to “ferret out the differences.”
Steve Slavin, a senior regulatory analyst for Chevron, which holds several thousand private licenses, while agreeing that the WTB’s strides toward electronic filing during the past 24 months were great, said that most users remain uninformed of such changes. He also found that the commission’s embedded bureaucracy tends to punish licensees for trying to do the right thing by reporting changes in their licenses, giving one example of license revocation and changes in primary status when changes in two degrees were reported and staffers reacted negatively. These glitches sometimes take years to solve, he said. He also suggested that some changes be made to the FCC’s call center, because operators routinely switch easy questions over to supervisors instead of having such information at their fingertips.
Perhaps the most damning, but truthful, presentation of what the WTB should be doing to deregulate itself and to streamline its processes came from former FCC chief economist Michael Katz, now a professor at Berkeley. Only half tongue in cheek, he told the WTB that carving up spectrum for specific uses limits competition; that universal-service uncertainties need to be resolved where wireless interests are concerned so that they can compete effectively with wireline operators; and that universal service itself “wastes $8 billion to $10 billion on a program that does nothing, and that vouchers or targeted subsidies should be used instead; that public-safety spectrum should be bought by those entities using subsidized funds.”
Regarding the FCC’s mantra of using auctions to get small businesses involved in the telecom industry, Katz said that small businesses never should have been allowed to become involved in personal communications services because it is too capital intensive and the areas to be served are too large. He compared becoming involved with PCS with becoming involved in building a steel mill.
During the question-and-answer period following the discussion, audience members asked the WTB to consider the following proposals:
require licensees who are modifying sites to provide the FCC with data on the new site before they power up, so that adjacent licensees can look for any potential interference problems;
abolish the short-spacing rule because licensees already can move almost freely within their footprints;
postpone the upcoming auction of the 800 MHz lower bands for at least two years so that current licensees in economic areas who have to move can do so;
set up a streamlined arbitration and mediation system;
process microwave applications more quickly, especially those that have to be coordinated with National Telecommunications and Information Administration frequencies along with allowing conditional licensing in those bands;
define the rules for geographic-area licensing of paging carriers; and
resolve 220 MHz cross-border treaties with Canada.
D’wana Perry, acting chief of the WTB’s public-safety division, said that the bureau has moved forward on the microwave concerns, particularly those with NTIA and conditional licensing, and that an order is in the works.
