BOLTON LANDING, N.Y.–During his nearly four-year tenure heading up the Federal Communications Commission, Kevin Martin oversaw some dramatic changes across the mobile communications space. Those changes included the continued consolidation of a number of regional operators as well as a pair of spectrum auctions that generated more than $30 billion for the U.S. government and unleashed a flood of new spectrum onto the mobile space.
While he was unable to make his scheduled in-person appearance at this week’s New York State Wireless Association Trade Show & Conference, he did take advantage of a telecommunications service – Skype’s Voice over Internet Protocol offering – that has benefited from some of his decisions while at the FCC.
Speaking to the NYSWA crowd, Martin touched on a number of topics centered on his time at the FCC as well as any advice he may have for the current administration.
Noting the challenges of the ongoing attempts to get wireless spectrum into the hands of the public safety community, Martin said the difficulty in that process will continue to be in finding the funds needed to build out a nationwide, interoperable public safety network.
“We tried to get a public/private partnership together with the D Block,” but it just did not work out, Martin explained. He added that while he thinks the private sector could fund the build, there are still a lot of financial issues that need to be ironed out. Martin added that while constructing the D-Block rules, the FCC assumed it would not be able to get the needed financing for the network from the local level and that the funding from a national level just did not materialize.
Despite the setback, Martin still things a public/private partnership is the best method for getting a network deployed.
Martin also said that while there are a number of hurdles preventing the execution of so-called “incentive auctions,” he thinks something drastic needs to be done to handle the increased demand for mobile data services.
“We always underestimate what consumer demand is for services, so I think the demand for spectrum will always be more than we think,” Martin said, adding that the government could look at more stringent build out requirements for current spectrum holders as a way to force them to utilize their current spectrum assets to their fullest extent.
These policies could also mean easing rules for the deployment of picocells and microcells to better take advantage of spectrum assets as well as changes to roaming rules that would require carriers to build out their spectrum holdings and instead of relying on other operators to provide network coverage.
Martin is currently a partner at Patton Boggs L.L.P., which is representing the Communications Workers of America in their support of the proposed AT&T Inc. acquisition of T-Mobile USA Inc.
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