Mutiny precedes the finale : FCC meeting to cover mergers, white spaces and more

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has set a highly ambitious agenda for the Nov. 4 open meeting. And the December meeting potentially could pack as much punch, seeing that time is running short for the FCC chief to push through policy priorities before being replaced by the next administration.
As such, Martin wants the agency to act on the Sprint Nextel-Clearwire and Verizon Wireless-Alltel Communications mergers, operations in TV white spaces, inter-carrier compensation reforms, Verizon Wireless’ C-Block open-access licenses and more. As for the two wireless transactions, Martin is effectively assuming the roles of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke by moving sooner rather than later to minimize potentially adverse consequences facing the parties.
But what Martin wants to get done at the November and December meetings and what actually gets done could turn out to be very different things. The upcoming presidential election apparently is making for much mischief and political maneuvering at the FCC.
In his news briefing to outline items he wants on the Nov. 4 agenda, Martin was openly critical of his fellow commissioners for foot-dragging on issuing new rules for automatic roaming, the advanced wireless services-3 band and low-power TV stations. The latter – as well as Sprint Nextel’s 800 MHz rebanding petition for relief – were supposed to have been considered by FCC members in Nashville at Vanderbilt University. The venue was to have doubled for a hearing on childhood obesity. The latter event took place, with several commissioners in Nashville and Martin at the FCC headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was an awkward situation, fertile ground for finger-pointing and blame among Martin and his colleagues.
All told, these are tough times for Kevin Martin. In addition to routine grappling with Democratic Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, the FCC chairman is meeting stiff resistance at times from majority Republican members Deborah Taylor Tate and Robert McDowell. The acidic environment at the FCC actually has existed for a while. Now, one senses it has all become unglued. That suggests tumult in the weeks leading up to the proposed Nov. 4 agenda chock full of controversial matters in their own right. Industry lobbyists likely will try to capitalize on fissures within the FCC and likely will succeed. When all is said and done, what’s left of the Nov. 4 agenda could prove anticlimactic.