WASHINGTON-The wireless industry accomplished much last year on the regulatory road to competition, but the task of creating parity with wireline services and eliminating old monopoly-related regulations is far from complete.
Cellular carriers, personal communications services licensees, private radio providers, messaging companies and other wireless entities this year will work even harder alone and in tandem with their professional associations to even the playing field as Congress and the Federal Communications Commission enter Year Three of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Carriers and consumers alike appear to think that the promises made in that act are not being carried out in reality, from the lowering of prices to the abandoning of what Alan Shark, president and chief executive officer of the American Mobile Telecommunications Association calls “unreasonable regulatory burdens on small businesses.” He believes that the new panel of commissioners may be ready to address in a positive manner some of the pressing concerns over which the wireless industry has been wringing its hands during the last regime.
“On the Eighth Floor (of the FCC), it looks like people are looking at things from anew,” Shark said. “They are much more open, especially on issues like E911. We hope that they feel the same about number portability and wireless resale.”
Besides those issues, Shark anticipates spending time at the FCC promoting private radio’s points of view on the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (“I hope there’s recognition that traditional specialized mobile radio carriers can adhere differently to CALEA strictures without going bankrupt or redoing their infrastructure”) and regulatory fees (“We are paying a greater share compared with other, larger services”).
“While it may be administratively efficient to have one regulation that fits all, you have to look at the effect on all parties. That’s our major point,” he said.
In the regulatory quest for new private spectrum, Shark contends that most of the commission’s policy regarding spectrum management “is inconsistent” and that AMTA “is working with the Land Mobile Communications Council and the FCC so that our people can be more active in trunking.” Despite the fact that at least two auctions may be scheduled this year for spectrum usable by SMRs and other private operators, private players may not have an equal footing with their larger, deep-pocketed counterparts. The FCC’s recent allocation of commercial spectrum in the Channel 60-69 broadcast band is inviting, and Shark “wants to make sure that in the Channel 60-69 commercial bands we have a good shot at them in some way, even a separate set-aside.”
The 220 MHz auction scheduled for this year also is attractive, and the association is keeping a close eye on FCC progress on petitions for reconsideration on the sale. Shark hopes there will be a long settling-out period before the FCC schedules the auction of the lower 800 MHz bands, just to make sure any problems related to the auction of the upper bands have a chance to work themselves out.
Like all carriers, SMRs are worried about the impact of universal service on both their bottom lines and their chances in the future to ever draw out of such a fund instead of just paying in. “I’m a little encouraged after meeting with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. We are dealing with people who really don’t understand our business, and like microbreweries, we are microbusinesses,” Shark said. “They still stand for the goals of universal service, but now they know the whole impact of it on small businesses. If we can’t get anything out of the fund, then we are subsidizing the big guys.”
Tom Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, is taking “an oriental approach” to clearing this year’s regulatory hurdles-if they don’t get solved during the calendar year, they will get solved by the sheer mass of attention.
“How much can be accomplished this year? The calendar is not the controlling factor. Government has to go beyond lip service. This year, we will deal with the evolution of the relationship between government and a fully competitive business that has been regulated because of the lack of competition,” he said. “Will we be partners with government or are we going to be constantly fighting while government tries to maintain its old monopoly ways? Wireless communications is the leading edge of change, but is government willing to change its ways as well?”
One of Wheeler’s hot-button concerns is the way carriers have been able to hide line-item taxes on a consumer bill, thus keeping a subscriber in the dark regarding the various fees required to maintain government programs that are passed on by the carriers. “In a competitive environment, there can be no hidden taxes,” he said. “They need to be shown on the bill so that the voters know what is going on. All charges-for E911, number portability, CALEA-should be shown. We are responding and we are changing as we have been asked, and we should expect no less from others.”
Regarding oversight of E911, Wheeler has no problem with an unsubscribed phone being able to contact emergency services, but he wants the FCC to help the industry make sure antennas can be put up so that emergency calls can be relayed. He believes FCC Chairman Bill Kennard is in favor of universal access to safety and that the call must go through. “We think that local governments can come up with a good way to make sure antennas go up without precluding everywhere in a site,” Wheeler said. In a recent letter, Wheeler asked Kennard for assistance in putting together an FCC/industry/local government meeting to work out pending siting problems.
CTIA, long a participant in CALEA-related discussions with the FCC, Congress and standards-setting bodies, still believes that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has thrown up roadblocks to full implementation for the past two years, still is engaged in a “hide the pea exercise,” Wheeler said. “Congress authorized $500 million in (network) upgrades and the FBI wants several billion, with carriers picking up the extra,” he said. “We will not be bankers for a FBI wish list.”
Spectrum is the key regulatory issue facing the Industrial Telecommunications Association this year, and John Kneuer, executive director of government relations, wants to get a number of outstanding issues resolved at the FCC, beginning with refarming, especially in the low-power bands. He also wants to build a higher profile for the private wireless industry at the commission.
“The industry came up with a proposal for the 450 MHz-470 MHz band, but the FCC has not released a public notice on it yet,” he said. “We also would like to see a clarification of trunking rules below 800 megahertz.”
Like AMTA’s Shark, Kneuer would like to see the FCC think through the next 800-megahertz auction. But he is more apprehensive about a perception that the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau is leaning toward auctioning private-radio spectrum.
“We want to discourage this,” he said, adding that private carriers are not adverse to paying for use of the spectrum; they just want to do it through lease fees. “This is not a money issue, but a sound spectrum-management issue. The FCC needs to consider the limits on auctions that are built into the act.”
Interconnection is the main course on the Personal Communications Industry Association’s regulatory plate this year, according to president Jay Kitchen. “We were ecstatic about the FCC’s Dec. 30 letter on transport charges,” he said. “It was a major victory for paging, but that’s taking only one hill in a series of battles. We also are waiting for action on reciprocal compensation.”
The pay-phone-surcharge proceeding at the commission also is a continuing headache, with the court system two weeks ago rejecting PCIA’s request for a stay of new charges until the issue can be resolved. “Why can’t the caller just
drop the money in the box?” Kitchen wondered. “Instead, (paging) carriers will have to put in mechanisms to account for pay-phone calls.”
Like other association heads, Kitchen is continuing to track the effects of universal service on wireless carriers, many of them still in the non-cash flow stage. His paging constituency has asked the FCC for a 50-percent reduction in the fees it must pay, due to the one-way nature of the business. PCS carriers have asked for a five-year moratorium on paying into the fund, enough time to get a network up and running, and money coming in. And Kitchen doesn’t want to lose any ground in the tower-siting fight, especially now that members of Congress are attempting to water down federal responsibility for helping get wireless networks deployed.
Can the wireless industry make significant progress this year in resolving past issues and preventing new problems from being back-burnered at the FCC?
“How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time,” Kitchen offered. “The FCC has to focus, pick its items, resolve them and move on.”
