WASHINGTON-In a slight about-face, the wireless industry is welcoming regulation from the Federal Communications Commission, especially if the alternative is 51 different regulatory bodies, said Kathleen Ham, managing director of federal regulatory affairs for T-Mobile USA Inc.
“The wireless industry is doing an about-face and would welcome dealing with one agency,” said Ham.
Although the wireless industry has long been a proponent of federal, not state, regulation, the local wireline telephone companies have started coming on board in the 21st century.
“The more relevant question is whether one commission is better than 50 commissions,” said David Cohen, vice president of policy of the United States Telecom Association. “For the life of me, I can’t figure out how a photon can be priced differently once it crosses state lines, but it is.”
Ham and Cohen delivered their message at a Thursday conference where the notion of abolishing the FCC was also discussed.
“There is no need for a collegial body. You could follow the OfComm model that is strictly an administrator. Have an administrator, a single person, replace the entire commission,” said David Irwin, director of the Institute of Communications Law Studies at the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University.
While Irwin also favors eliminating state regulation of telecom, he believes that any discussion of re-writing the Telecommunications Act of 1996 should include a serious look at the FCC itself.
Representatives of the telecom industry appearing at the all-day conference seemed to dismiss the notion of eliminating the FCC and replacing it with a regulator similar to the United Kingdom’s Office of Communications.
“I would rather have five individuals who are totally immersed in the issues,” said Jonathan Askin, general counsel for pulver.com Enterprises.
A long-time staffer at the FCC said the agency has become more complicated with convergence. “It was a lot easier when things existed in the traditional silos. It gets a lot more complicated with all of the blurring of the lines,” said Robert Pepper, acting director of the FCC’s Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis.
Congress is expected to begin tackling telecommunications reform, including re-authorizing the FCC, this year. Many people believe it will take more than one year, especially if the House goes forward first with a bill to set a hard date to end the transition to digital TV.
