WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission said it will concentrate on making wireless regulations more flexible and streamlining licensing procedures in the coming months.
The emphasis on the two areas will be seen in new service rules and administrative procedures, according to the agency.
“I believe [flexibility] is an important issue for the symbolism,” said Regina Keeney, chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau at the FCC. “Let the market figure out what the best use is.”
Keeney said the FCC will examine how much leeway commercial mobile radio service providers should have to offer fixed services. Guidelines governing fixed wireless use are not clear, she noted.
A hint of what is to come is the new General Wireless Communications Service, which includes 25 megahertz (4660-4685 MHz) that people can buy chunks of and use for virtually any purpose.
Conservative techno-policy wonks increasingly have been urging the FCC to privatize, or dezone, radio spectrum. Though federal regulators see benefits in limited application of the concept, they have not embraced the notion of a free-for-all across all frequency bands in which interference disputes are resolved by courts. Historically, the FCC makes a public-interest finding before allocating blocks of spectrum throughout the country to distinct wireless services.
On another front, Keeney said efforts are being made to make wireless licensing simpler. This involves a two-pronged approach.
First, the FCC is steadily moving away from licensing individual transmitters to licensing geographic areas. That means a wireless operator need not file an application for every transmitter so long as his or her transmission signal stays within the licensed service area.
Second, policymakers are trying to determine whether applications require unnecessary information.
“We’re trying to make them [applications] more user friendly,” said Keeney, who was in China last week to discuss telecommunications issues and develop a better dialogue with her counterparts in that country.
FCC officials also are trying to improve internal processing of applications. In that regard, steps are being taken to implement electronic filing in wireless services.
Besides those broad initiatives, there are a host of policy issues that will be addressed in the remaining months of the year and early next year.
Foremost, is the outcome of legal challenges to the entrepreneur block auction for 493 personal communications services licenses. Oral argument is set for Sept. 28.
The FCC dropped female and minority bidding credits and removed all race and gender preferences associated with ownership and affiliation rules after the Supreme Court in June adopted stricter standards to justify federal affirmative action programs.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit stayed the entrepreneur block PCS auction for a second time in late July after Omnipoint Corp., a small Colorado Springs, Colo., firm that holds a pioneer’s preference PCS license in New York, challenged ownership rules that were liberalized after the high court’s ruling in Adarand Constructors Inc. v. Pena.
On a related front, the FCC next month is expected to propose cost-sharing among PCS licensees who must pay to relocate fixed microwave users from the 2 GHz band to higher frequencies. It is unclear whether the FCC also will seek to modify microwave relocation procedures that are under attack by the PCS industry.
FCC Chairman Reed Hundt wants to hold the 900 MHz specialized mobile radio auction in November and the 800 MHz SMR auction in the third quarter next year.
The remainder of narrowband and broadband PCS auctions are scheduled to conclude in 1996. Auctions also are supposed to be held for 220 MHz, cellular unserved and General Wireless Communications Services licenses next year.
The auction timetable is tentative. Licensing rules and auction guidelines for each service have to be completed. Moreover, the timing of the court’s decision in the entrepreneur block auction case and the nature of the ruling itself will influence the auction schedule.
