The great Washington wireless mystery continues.
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission officially launched its Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. Kenneth Moran was named acting chief of a new unit that has been in the works in the year since Hurricane Katrina’s deadly destruction highlighted how ill-equipped we are to respond to a major disaster. Congress approved the bureau just weeks ago. Because of the qualifier in Moran’s title-“acting”-it can be reasonably inferred that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is looking for someone else to head the public-safety bureau on a permanent basis. Martin, not a man of many words in public, was mum on the matter.
Logic would suggest a new bureau dedicated to safety of life and protection of property-the highest calling of the Communications Act-should be staffed with a permanent chief. But who knows?
The FCC also regulates the $100 billion mobile-phone industry, responsible for tens of thousands of U.S. jobs, increased business productivity and collective donor of nearly $14 billion to the U.S. Treasury via the advanced wireless services auction. Wireless services-licensed and unlicensed-are key to Martin’s highest priority-broadband deployment. Some might argue the future of the Internet-if not telecom, music, gaming, entertainment and the rest-is wireless. Yet for more than a year-as long as Martin has been FCC czar-there has not been a permanent chief of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. Only the very capable and well regarded Catherine Seidel in an “acting” capacity. Perhaps she’ll be nominated for an Oscar.
Martin cannot be waiting for Congress to sign off on the creation of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. That was done more than a decade ago. Perhaps Martin is awaiting congressional consent for the opposite-the elimination of the wireless bureau. Who knows? Martin won’t say, though he acknowledges a job well done by Seidel. A fine diplomatic-albeit transparent-dodge. But Martin knows, and so does his inner circle, which so proudly and effectively controls the information flow at the FCC.
One has to believe wireless carriers and vendors would like to see a permanent WTB chief, since it removes an element of uncertainty. But perhaps it is not a major concern so long as they are getting theirs. For the most part, particularly on the festering federal pre-emption issue, the FCC has been very good to the wireless industry.
At the same time, creating a vacuum and farming out wireless policy to other bureaus poses potential problems for the mobile phone, wireless broadband and industrial radio sectors. FCC bureaus and offices hold differing perspectives and ideologies on telecom policy, including how wireless fits into the mix. Martin needs to come clean and tell the world how the WTB fits in, or doesn’t.
