DENVER-Wireless technology can play a key role in developing competition in the local telecommunications market as envisioned by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, according to Dale Hatfield, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology at the Federal Communications Commission.
Hatfield was the keynote speaker at the 1999 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Radio and Wireless Conference held last week in Denver.
“To reduce (it) to the basics, the ’96 act revolved around three crucial interrelated covenants: competition, deregulation and universal service,” said Hatfield. “In my mind, Congress struck down the entry barriers because of this nation’s fundamental belief that competition-consumer choice, if you will-drives down prices, leads to improved services, furthers innovation and provides consumers with a wider range of products and services.”
Wireless competition will be an important factor in breaking up the local telecom monopoly for three reasons, said Hatfield.
First, it will lead to more consumer choice and all of the related benefits of a competitive market. Hatfield said he has been encouraged by the emerging competition between local telephone companies and local cable operators.
However, “I believe that if we rely only on wired systems to provide competition, it is unlikely-for residential consumers at least-that we will see much more than a duopoly in the provision of local telecommunications services,” said Hatfield. “Economic theory suggests, and real-world experience confirms, that while having two choices is better than one, the full benefits of competition are unlikely to be realized without full-blown competition from wireless alternatives.”
Second, increased competition will allow for safe deregulation, or at least the halt of further regulation, said Hatfield. The role wireless can play in the goal of providing universal telecom services is the third reason wireless competition is important in breaking up the local telecom monopoly.
Hatfield said the FCC has taken steps to free spectrum for use in fixed-wireless applications. The commission last year also ruled that multichannel multipoint distribution services licensees can use their spectrum to provide two-way digital services rather than just the one-way video services originally envisioned.
