Wireless broadband: information service?

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is pushing a plan to treat wireless broadband service as an information service, a classification that would enable wireless Internet access providers to escape cumbersome common carrier rules imposed on wireless operators that are increasingly turning to Web-based content to fuel future growth.
Having a largely unregulated information service designation could provide
companies greater economic incentive to deploy wireless broadband facilities around the country, giving consumers an alternative to the cable TV-telephone broadband duopoly. Martin recently said he wants to add a wireless platform to the broadband mix.
“The action would eliminate unnecessary regulatory barriers for service providers,” said Martin in written testimony for a Senate Commerce Committee hearing last week. “This classification also would clarify any regulatory uncertainty and establish a consistent regulatory framework across broadband platforms, as we have already declared high-speed Internet access service provided via cable modem service, DSL (digital subscriber line) and BPL (broadband over powerline) to be information services. This action is particularly timely in light of the recently auctioned AWS-1 (advanced wireless services) spectrum for wireless broadband and our upcoming 700 MHz auction.”
An FCC spokeswoman could not clarify how such a new rule, if approved, would apply to existing wireless broadband service providers, as well as to mobile-phone operators that provide wireless Internet access over cellular networks. While cellular operators are subject to common carrier regulations and have a commercial mobile radio service tag, pure wireless broadband licensees fall within the broadband radio service. Mobile satellite licensees, particularly those planning to build land-based cellular networks to supplement communications spacecraft, are bound by their own distinct regulations.
The proposed rule is currently being circulated among the other four FCC commissioners, agency sources said.
Martin’s reference to the completed AWS auction and to the pending 700 MHz auction-which Congress ordered to be conducted by Jan. 28, 2008-suggests the new information service classification would be available to cellphone carriers and prospective WiMAX service providers. If Martin succeeds at getting the rule approved, it would be one of the most significant regulatory developments for the mobile-phone industry since Congress established the commercial mobile radio service framework in 1993 and largely pre-empted state regulation of cellular carriers. A possible added benefit of a common carrier-information service regulatory approach is that it could make it harder for states to intervene in the mobile-phone business.
Martin told lawmakers the FCC expects to finish writing licensing rules this spring for the upcoming 700 MHz auction. Sixty megahertz is being freed up as part of TV broadcasters’ transition to digital technology. Martin said the auction, which the Congressional Budget Office predicts could raise $12.5 billion for the U.S. Treasury, would be held in late summer or early fall this year.
Martin’s remarks on Capitol Hill about wanting to classify wireless broadband as an information service took the wireless industry by surprise. But industry welcomed the policy direction sought by the chairman of the GOP-led FCC, who was on the defensive for much of last week’s hearing by the Democratic-controlled Senate Commerce Committee.
“The FCC’s recently released high-speed access report shows that in the first half of 2006, nearly 8 million wireless high-speed lines were added. That was more than wireline and cable combined,” said CTIA President Steve Largent. “Classifying wireless broadband as an information service would mean the industry’s hallmarks of competition, innovation and choice would kick high-speed access service into overdrive, and consumers will ultimately benefit the most from that.” The 8 million lines Largent cited support at least 200 kbps in at least one direction.
“We applaud the proposal for the reasons stated by Chairman Martin,” said Andrew Kreig, president of the Wireless Communications Association International.
On other matters, Martin said making unassigned TV guardbands-nicknamed “white spaces”-available on an unlicensed basis would be far less complicated than licensing the spectrum. Martin expressed his views in response to a question from Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.), the sponsor of a bill that would expedite the release of TV white spaces and allow both unlicensed and licensed services. A similar bill by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) calls for exclusive unlicensed use of broadcast white spaces.
Telecom analysts at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co Inc. said they believe “the two most potentially disruptive polices the FCC is likely to deal with this year are … the ‘white spaces’ proceeding and the 700 MHz auction.”