WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration will brief the Senate Finance Committee this week on mobile phone trade and standards policy, a meeting prompted by intensified lobbying by Global System for Mobile communications advocates and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute in response to Congress and the White House’s growing irritation over Europe’s refusal to provide market access to wireless technologies other than those dominated by Sweden’s L.M. Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia Corp.
ETSI has hired the Dutko Group, a high-powered lobbying firm, to take its case to Congress. Dutko’s work, according to sources, is complemented by lobbying punch that hired gun Tony Podesta-brother of White House Chief of Staff John Podesta-is giving the North American GSM Alliance L.L.C.
“There has been an absence of opinions until recently and that gave Qualcomm (Inc.) a head start,” said Stephen Sayle of Dutko.
In meetings with key House members last week, Sayle brought with him Christopher Corbett, chief of ETSI marketing and distribution.
That ETSI and the North American GSM Alliance have secured the services of such top-notch lobbyists suggests a heightened concern among ETSI and GSM backers over where the United States might be headed on third-generation wireless policy.
For sure, momentum is growing in the GOP-led Congress and the Democratic White House to press Europe to open its market to Code Division Multiple Access technology that San Diego-based Qualcomm commercialized for second- and third-generation mobile phones.
Qualcomm, Lucent Technologies Inc. and CDMA mobile phone carriers are aggressively lobbying lawmakers and administration officials to embrace converged CDMA technology as a U.S. position. While lawmakers are warming to CDMA convergence, the White House has not taken a firm position other than favoring free trade and letting market forces drive standards.
That could change, following Qualcomm’s claim that the European Parliament last week rejected a new agreement formed between U.S. and EU industry leaders in Charlotte, N.C., earlier this month, which calls for ETSI to defer to the International Telecommunication Union on 3G wireless standards.
The EU did not return calls for comment.
In recent months, House and Senate members have stepped up criticism of Europe’s mobile phone standards-setting policy. House Science technology subcommittee Chairwoman Connie Morella (R-Md.) has threatened legislation if diplomacy fails to resolve the issue.
U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said she will take the U.S.-EU mobile phone technology trade issue to the World Trade Organization if necessary.
More recently, Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) wrote to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to “take steps to ensure the European Union does not adopt standards which will harm the global competitiveness of the U.S. telecommunications companies in this new generation of wireless communications.”
At present, GSM technology is deployed exclusively in Europe and used elsewhere throughout the world.
CDMA is used by major U.S. wireless carriers including Sprint Spectrum L.P., AirTouch Communications Inc. and three Baby Bells.
Critics of Qualcomm say the firm is interested in getting as much of its CDMA patents incorporated in 3G technology and that the trade issue is a red herring.
