WASHINGTON-The United States Telecom Association will not lobby on behalf of wireless carriers even as it attempts to broaden its focus and include wireless carriers in its membership, said USTA President Roy Neel.
“We will not out-CTIA CTIA,” said Neel, referring to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
Earlier this year, USTA changed the word telephone to telecom in its name to indicate a broader focus of the organization and reflect the changes in the converging telecommunications world.
USTA, which for more than 100 years has lobbied on behalf of the wireline local exchange carriers (except AT&T Corp., which has always been its nemesis), will now join with other telecommunications-related associations and companies to lobby specific issues, Neel said.
“We have broadened our own membership base … We are expanding our own focus internally … We are working harder to better understand the convergence of these lines of businesses … We want to help forestall the regulatory barriers that have defined these businesses,” Neel said.
Neel’s comments came during an end-of-year press briefing, where he graded the Federal Communications Commission and Congress on their efforts to promote competition, reduce regulation, implement universal service and encourage rapid deployment of new technologies.
USTA gave Congress an incomplete on deploying new technologies and promoting competition. If it must grade Congress on competition, it would receive a C+, USTA said. Congress did not act to implement universal service and rated average-or C-on reducing regulation.
The FCC did much worse. It “nearly failed” in encouraging the deployment of new technologies, Neel said. The official grade was a D. The highest grade it received was a C+ in reducing regulation. USTA gave it average ratings for promoting competition and implementing universal service.
USTA will focus its energies this year on passing a bill that would prohibit the FCC from requiring incumbent LECs to offer data services to competitors. It also would like legislation that would allow Baby Bells to offer long-distance data services.
When queried whether such a bill is akin to opening the long-debated Telecommunications Act of 1996, Neel said the FCC “has ruling favor of MCI-WorldCom [Inc.] and AT&T … We think [this bill] brings telecom policy at the FCC” back to USTA’s side.
The implementation of the digital wiretap act will lose its luster this year unless law enforcement insists that all carriers comply with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, Neel said.
“If there is a willingness of members of Congress to look at this we will continue to pound this, … my fear is that Congress won’t get involved in this until we see some problems on behalf of carriers as law enforcement starts to bring down the hammer on compliance,” Neel said.
