Now NAO

In light of the troubles encountered by telecom carriers and public-safety agencies following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina four years later, it is hard to criticize the Bush administration’s regulatory bailout of a still-struggling yet promising mobile
satellite service sector.
Policy-makers gush with redundancy rhetoric on maintaining communications for ordinary people and first responders during emergencies. The Federal Communications Commission’s 2003 decision to allow MSS operators to supplement satellites with an ancillary terrestrial component-land-based cellular networks-could do the trick as well as provide new commercial and homeland security benefits.
But even as established and startup MSS providers bet hundreds of millions of dollars to make another go of it, there are the makings of the kind of predicament already faced by telecom giants accused of being in cahoots with the National Security Agency and its anti-terrorist warrantless wiretap program.
Amid the legal and political crossfire of the NSA’s surveillance effort a new controversy has erupted over reported White House plans to leverage military spy satellites for domestic surveillance. The activities would be overseen by a newly created, Orwellian-sounding outfit called the National Applications Office.
So now we have NAO and ATC.
Key congressional Democrats, like Reps. Edward Markey (DMass.) and Bennie Thompson (DMiss.), are pressing Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to explain how citizens’ privacy and civil liberties will be safeguarded. But really, for MSS licensees, it is more a matter of public-relations since spy satellites specialize in high-definition imagery, not listening in on phone conversations.
Markey asked Chertoff to explain whether it approached commercial satellite carriers and analyzed competitive implications of supposedly settling on a military solution rather than one from the private sector.
No doubt MSS operators would welcome big government customers, though perhaps not at the expense of scaring off prospective subscribers.
Meantime, being a good corporate soldier and a trusted steward of privacy-finding the right balance, if there is one-will be one of biggest challenges for wireless and other telecom carriers for years to come.