WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard last week said
he would consider further wireless deregulation and intends to streamline operations, objectives that could help defuse
plans on Capitol Hill to reform the agency this year.
Kennard came under fire in 1998-his first year on the job-from
the wireless industry and some in Congress for regulating monopoly landline local telcos no differently than
competitive mobile phone and paging carriers.
“We are involved today in a very intense dialogue with the
wireless industry to hear these concerns,” said Kennard last Thursday at his first press conference of the year at
the FCC’s new Portals headquarters.
Kennard added: “I certainly don’t reject the proposition that we
have fairly robust competition in the wireless marketplace, particularly in some markets, and I’m willing to entertain
how we can relax regulation in various areas in order to promote more competition in the wireless area. That’s a debate
that will continue through 1999.”
Wireless industry lobbyists claim the FCC’s one-size-fits-all common-
carrier approach undermines competition among wireless carriers as well as Congress’s local competition goal in the
1996 telecom act.
The industry, among other things, is concerned about rules governing universal service,
mandatory resale, the 45-megahertz spectrum cap, text telephone access for the deaf and 911 connectivity.
There are
a host of other common-carrier rules created by the telecom act that are imposed on wireline and wireless carriers
alike.
“It is important that wireless policy not be footnotes in common-carrier decisions,” said Thomas
Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
Wheeler challenged the FCC to
promote the wireless industry-which includes 65 million mobile phone subscribers-as vigorously as it champions the
growth and innovation of the Internet and its 70 million users.
“Both Congress and the FCC have recognized
the value of eliminating economic regulation of the wireless industry. This year, the FCC must keep taking real steps to
ensure that through continuous deregulation and reliance on the marketplaces, competition will thrive,” said Mary
McDermott, senior vice president and chief of staff for government relations for the Personal Communications Industry
Association.
Kennard defended the agency’s record of promoting competition through the infusion into the
marketplace of large chunks of radio spectrum. Some critics, however, say the FCC dumped too much spectrum into
the market too fast and needs to return to disciplined spectrum management.
Included in broad policy objectives of
fostering competition, innovation, accessibility and consumer protection, cited by Kennard, are promoting alternatives
to wireline technology in the local telephone arena, assuring reliable wireless compatibility with enhanced 911,
completing universal service reform, ensuring that the 54 million Americans with disabilities have access to the
communications network, encouraging the development of internal standards for global interconnectivity, promoting
fair spectrum use through the World Radio communication Conference of 2000, aggressively working for worldwide
adoption of the World Trade Organization agreement on basic telecommunications and helping countries lay the
foundation for telecom deregulation, competition and infrastructure investment.
“As we move into the
Information Age, we at the FCC will have to change,” said Kennard. The top-down, command and control,
regulatory model of the Industrial Age is as out of place in the new economy as the rotary telephone. As competition
and convergence develop, the FCC will continue to streamline its operations, eliminate unnecessary regulatory burdens,
and make it easier for the public to interact with the agency.”
In addition to the increasingly difficult task of
rounding up votes despite Democratic control of the FCC, Kennard is expected to face intense scrutiny from Senate
Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy
Tauzin (R-La.) during oversight hearings this year.
Kennard said the FCC will act in the next six months on pending
mergers between AT&T Corp. and Tele-Communications Inc., Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp., and Ameritech
Corp. and SBC Communications Inc.
The FCC’s first open meeting is Jan. 28. Kennard announced spokeswoman
Liz Rose will leave the agency by month’s end. A successor has not been named. Kennard praised Rose for her work
during the chairman’s tumultuous first year.
