WASHINGTON-The wireless industry has been asked to help the Federal Communications Commission reduce a three-inch thick backlog of work yet to be completed by the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. At the urging of congressional staff, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, the Industrial Telecommunications Association and the Personal Communications Industry Association are interjecting their opinions on how the Wireless Bureau can reduce the seemingly insurmountable backlog.
The backlog came to light earlier this summer when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Commerce Committee, became concerned that a licensing decision still was pending after three years. Although that issue finally was resolved, it became apparent that it was one of many wireless items still waiting to be tackled by the FCC. The backlog also seemed to confirm to the wireless industry the FCC has been focused too much on auctions and not enough on day-to-day activities. “The (FCC’s) failure to act on policy begs the question, how difficult is it to make a decision?” said Brian Fontes, CTIA’s senior vice president for policy and administration.
The focus on auctions as well as the statutory deadlines imposed by passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 have meant other issues haven’t received any attention.
Indeed, one industry attorney, Alan Tilles, said it is disingenuous for Congress to complain about the backlog when it wanted to use auctions to balance the budget. “The FCC has been concerned with pushing out auction items because they were pressured by Congress to produce revenue … The (FCC) diverted so much of its attention from the here-and-now work, there was no one around to ensure (the work got done.) It is unfair for people to merely blame the wireless bureau. You have to blame Congress for not giving the bureau the staff for day-to-day operations,” Tilles said.
A lot of the backlog is a stack of related items that need to be decided. For example, Daniel Phythyon, wireless bureau chief, said that 50,000 of the pending 64,000 items will be solved through a pending item on multiple address system applications. That decision, however, will not be issued until sometime next year.
In the meantime, industry associations are expected soon to tell congressional staff what items they believe are critical. This message also may be sent directly to the FCC. Each association is expected to forward its own recommendations. “It is not going to be one size fits all,” said Fontes.
ITA, for example, is adamant issues surrounding refarming need to be resolved. “Refarming really needs to be concluded so the marketplace knows what (spectrum) it has. Business is being conducted by best guess. Enough already!” said ITA President Mark Crosby.
Fontes would like to see the wireless bureau receive additional delegated authority. Delegated authority would allow the bureau to make decisions without approval from each of the commissioners.
PCIA already has given a road map to the bureau, sending to the FCC 71 suggestions for deregulation. If the bureau endorsed these suggestions, a large portion of the backlog would become moot, said Mary McDermott, PCIA senior vice president and chief of staff for government relations.
In addition, PCIA would like the FCC to clearly define the resale obligations of personal communications services carriers. Since the FCC rejected a plea from PCIA to eliminate this obligation, it is necessary for the agency to clearly define it, McDermott said. A decision on this is expected next month.
The American Mobile Telecommunications Association publicly has said it wants the FCC to remove mandates that may not be technologically possible for SMR.
For its part, the FCC, in general, and the bureau, specifically, seem to have gotten McCain’s message and are working to reduce the backlog. “Resolving the current backlog is very important to the bureau. We are currently working on the most efficient way to address it, but that’s about all we could tell you at this point about the backlog,” said Phythyon through a spokesman.
CTIA’s Fontes believes the backlog will not be dissolved easily by what he calls “cosmetic changes.”
“At first blush, it is a daunting task. (Cosmetic changes) will not get to the root of the problem. Maybe there are some good suggestions that will really relieve the backlog,” he said. McDermott agreed, saying a process needs to be established within the bureau that “allows them to take action in a timely manner.”
These suggestions are likely to include changes to the FCC’s administrative process to make it more responsive to commerce or perhaps include major changes to the Administrative Procedures Act.
Lauren `Pete’ Belvin, communications counsel for the Senate Commerce Committee, however, does not foresee changes to the APA unless Kennard specifically asks for them. “It would be tough to prescribe (the backlog) to the APA. This is simply a misallocation of resources. (On the other hand), if Mr. Kennard would point out to us what statutory impediments” need to be removed, Congress could work to remove them, Belvin said.
Kennard is not likely to tip his hand on statutory impediments at this stage, FCC staff said. “We will be talking about legislation in the context of reauthorization, but that is further down the road,” one FCC official said.
In the end, the answer to the backlog may simply be making decisions with the recognition that anything the FCC does-or does not do-impacts the telecommunications industry. “When it comes to voting, the bottom line is the (FCC) has the authority to vote on items. Nothing is going to negate the (FCC’s) authority to take action,” Fontes said.
