NEW ORLEANS-Now that all three of soon-to-be-former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt’s Telecommunications Act of 1996 implementation goals-universal service, access-charge reform and interconnection-have been completed in at least bare-bones form, the critics continue to lambaste the commission’s decisions as being deterrents to growth and competition.
Former Texas congressman Jack Fields, who now serves as chief executive officer of Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm 20th Century Group, made no bones last week about his misgivings regarding the FCC’s mishandling of certain mandates of the telecom law. He also waxed eloquent regarding the globalization of the communications industry.
Speaking to attendees of SuperComm, the former chairman of the House Telecom and Finance subcommittee-who was a driving force behind the drafting and passage of the act-said, “Some of the ways the FCC has interpreted the act has stymied investment. On interconnection, the FCC went far outside congressional intent. There is no way to square what the FCC did with what we intended. They had no right to get into pricing and cost models.” FCC cost models are “unreliable,” and the funds they will raise won’t be available until 1999, Fields said. He added that cable companies, which at one time were gung ho on building out the next generation of data and voice networks, have shied away from embarking on infrastructure plans because of FCC interference.
Addressing Part Two of the FCC’s trilogy policy-universal service-Fields said that the FCC again overstepped its boundaries by codifying the idea. “Congress never intended that universal service be mandated,” he said. “It was only a goal.” The monies to be allocated for wiring schools and hospitals to the Internet-garnered from telecommunications providers-amounts to a tax, Fields said.
Instead of allowing the FCC to formulate its own future spectrum-management policies, Fields said it was “fair to say” that Congress will draft and pass its own plan, probably driven by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Because of the decline in auction revenues during the past two license sales conducted by the commission, Fields believes the worth of licenses held prior to the D-, E- and F-block auctions and the Wireless Communications Services auction went down because of the drop.
He also thinks that budgeteers should not be determining spectrum policy-i.e., what should be auctioned and when-and that consumers should define the marketplace.
