WASHINGTON-With Congress back at work for a fall legislative session that will be cut short by the 2000 presidential election, several key bills of interest to the wireless industry remain in play.
The GOP-led Congress, among other things, is anxious to repeal the 3-percent federal excise tax on wireless and landline telephone service and to pass a China trade bill. The Senate last session began debate on legislation to extend permanent normal trade relations to China, an emerging market of 1.3 billion people with a poor telecom infrastructure that represents boundless business opportunities for U.S. wireless firms.
The Senate is expected to approve China trade after vigorous debate.
There is significant bipartisan support for ending the century-old, 3-percent federal phone tax. The problem is reconciling the House bill-which calls for a gradual phase-out of the tax-and the Senate bill’s wholesale repeal of the tax. Even with that hurdle, it is possible some type of tax-relief legislation can be approved.
“We have one more shot at it,” said Steven Berry, senior vice president for congressional affairs at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, referring to the phone-tax repeal.
Elsewhere, the wireless industry has a lot at stake in House and Senate bills that would impose stricter rules for foreign acquisition of U.S. telecom companies. The House telecommunications subcommittee put the issue under the microscope last Thursday at a hearing on Deutsche Telekom AG’s planned $56 billion purchase of VoiceStream Wireless Corp.
Less likely for passage, but still in play, are bills to eliminate or relax the spectrum cap. The cap, a Federal Communications Commission antitrust rule that bans mobile-phone carriers from holding more than 45 megahertz in any one market, is viewed by the wireless industry as an impediment to future growth. Carriers plan to offer a mix of voice, data and video services over third-generation mobile-phone systems, but will need a fat pipe to do so.
Berry said CTIA also will be watching telecom merger review, truth-in-billing and FCC appropriations legislation. CTIA is lobbying lawmakers for a provision to expedite wireless-only mergers, arguing less oversight is needed for such transactions because the wireless industry is competitive.
As for other bills, Berry said he is taking a defensive posture to guard against amendments unfriendly to industry. For example, lobbying continues unabated by established mobile-phone carriers and Next-Wave Telecom Inc. over the future of NextWave’s 90 wireless licenses.
NextWave, which is trying to emerge from bankruptcy, wants to prevent the FCC from taking its wireless permits back. Incumbent mobile-phone firms want the FCC to reclaim NextWave’s licenses and re-auction them.
Angela Giancarlo, director of federal regulatory affairs at the Personal Communications Industry Assoc-iation, is concentrating on wireless convergence issues-such as privacy-before Congress and the Federal Trade Commission.
“Wireless carriers want to take advantage of new and innovative technologies, but at the same time need to keep customers’ communications private … . It is an issue that’s on everybody’s radar screen,” said Giancarlo.
Though privacy legislation is not expected to be passed this year, Congress could pass a bill to increase the cap on visas for high-tech savvy foreign workers.
On the consumer front, Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) is expected shortly to introduce legislation to ban mobile-phone spam. Another pro-consumer bill, championed by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), would mandate wireless service standards and require the FCC to track wireless consumer complaints.
As for safety, the House later this month may hold the first hearing on digital driver distractions.
No action is planned this year on bills that would curb federal oversight of antenna siting and authorize federal funds to research any connection between mobile-phone use and cancer.
