Sacred-cow skittishness

If nothing else, the legacy of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin will be one in which aggressive advocacy of public-safety policy reigned to the point of sometimes seeming to conflict with fervent free-market principles.
Public safety and national security is legally inherent to the FCC’s mission, yet its emphasis at the commission and throughout the federal government has understandably amplified since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Communications, essential for commerce, public safety and homeland security in normal times, instantly become critical to saving lives during times of emergency.
“Public safety is one of the commission’s and my top priorities,” said Martin in tapping Derek Poarch – a highly respected first-responder veteran, not a politically connected Washington insider – to head the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau last year.
But it has been an uneven road for Martin, public safety and the cellphone industry.
While terrorism remains a threat and natural disasters have become uncannily common, the deference given to public safety and homeland security has tended to subside once a given crisis has subsided and life returns to some semblance of normality. When the country is not in a state of heightened alert, stakeholders probably feel freer to question policies without fear of being labeled unsympathetic to first responders. That dynamic – which one can argue is ironically the result of people feeling safer – has seemed to be at work in recent years.
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit signaled the FCC – even with the best of intentions – may have overstepped its authority in imposing a backup power rule on the mobile-phone industry. On the other hand, the same court wasn’t willing to buy Sprint Nextel Corp.’s argument that the FCC overreached in approving an 800 MHz rebanding plan intended to eliminate interference to public-safety radios.
The D.C. Circuit will decide at some point whether Martin’s plan for improving location accuracy for 911 calls will stand.
Now, some lawmakers want the FCC to strip public-safety conditions from the dubious D Block left behind in the 700 MHz auction. If the re-auction turns out to be a disappointing repeat performance, first responders could see political cover and political will melt away for the public-private partnership.