“And so this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun.” This old John Lennon song looped through my head as I reviewed stories RCR printed during the past 12 months. During 51 publishing cycles, I averaged about six stories a week on various topics, adding up to some 306 pieces of news. Boy … I don’t know my own strength.
While helping to choose the top 20 articles of 1996, it occurred to me that while much has been accomplished in 1996 to advance the wireless agenda, many of the issues we’ve been following still have no resolution or, for some reason, never will end. For example, private-radio operators, manufacturers and subscribers still have no answers regarding refarming, auctions, finder’s preferences or the future of channel pools. Refarming has been pending since 1993 and, with no statute of limitations at the FCC, the wait could go on indefinitely, despite cryptic, George Carlin-like promises from the commission of “soon.”
The hoopla surrounding the Telecommunications Act of 1996 has died down, but don’t believe for a minute that the tinkerers won’t start trying to chip away at some of the landmark parts of that bill. Siting moratoria at the state and local levels (see related story in this issue) will slow new network buildout to a snail’s pace unless Congress and the commission act quickly to reiterate the letter of the law. Of course, the FCC’s concept of “letter of the law” itself is in peril, as parts of the much-ballyhooed interconnection agreement-now on hold-go to appeals court next month on grounds the FCC overstepped its authority.
At press time, C-block personal communications services licenses belonging to NextWave, GWI PCS and PCS 2000 still hang in the balance. Charges against each of these entities are serious and should undergo the strictest scrutiny by the FCC, but that agency has been pestered in an ex parte or near ex parte manner by at least two of the three to get a move on. The commission should stick to its guns and not fold under pressure. There’s too much money (and integrity) at stake here to risk making a mistake.
But such is life in D.C. By the time you read this, the holidays (save New Year’s Eve and Day) will have passed, the food long gone, the gifts plundered and most of us are wondering when our kids are going to go back to school. Christmas at the Wayne house this year resembled not so much Martha Stewart as Rod Stewart-“Unplugged … and Seated.” Hope yours was the same, and best wishes for the coming onslaught.
