WASHINGTON-Key lawmakers, amid stepped-up negotiations last week on third-generation mobile phone technology, are laying the groundwork to move legislation in 1999 if they conclude in crucial coming months that U.S. wireless interests in Europe and elsewhere have been compromised unfairly.
3G was a major topic last week at meetings here, in Charlotte, N.C., and in London.
Representatives from the European Union will meet with U.S. officials as early as this week to continue negotiations on 3G global policy. In addition, the Federal Communications Commission this week is scheduled to issue a proposal that may address 3G spectrum-allocation questions.
While members of Congress have raised concerns in recent months about Europe’s plan for a single 3G mobile phone standard based on technology backed by Sweden’s L.M. Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia Corp. and about the absence of any U.S.-engineered Code Division Multiple Access technology in Europe, the tone of the rhetoric is becoming more strident and the substance is moving closer to an endorsement for CDMA convergence.
“We anticipate that this issue will be an important one for the 106th Congress,” said Philip Crane (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on trade, in an Oct. 11 floor statement.
Crane, next in line to chair the full committee, was joined in the statement by Robert Matsui (D-Calif.), ranking member of the trade subcommittee.
“If countries prematurely adopt standards and make them mandatory before the ITU has fully evaluated different proposals and had a chance to encourage harmonization, then a valuable opportunity to ensure fairness and consideration of global need will have been lost,” stated Crane.
Rep. Connie Morella (R-Md.), chairwoman of the House Science subcommittee on technology, vowed in an Oct. 21 floor statement “to vigorously pursue, through hearings and if necessary legislation, the arcane but vital issue of preserving U.S. competitiveness in the international market” next year.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), in an Oct. 16 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, said, “The EU’s move toward a deharmonized CDMA standard is contrary to the interests of U.S. manufacturers.”
Sources said a strong bipartisan letter echoing those sentiments could come this week from Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Sens. Don Nickels (R-Okla.), John Breaux (D-La.) and Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.). All those people, with the exception of Daschle, are on the Senate Finance international trade subcommittee.
Other powerful senators appear poised to jump on the bandwagon shortly.
The wideband-CDMA standard, a successor to Global System for Mobile communications technology used exclusively in Europe and widely around the world, is supported by Europe and, to a lesser extent, Japan.
The Clinton administration, concerned W-CDMA deployment in Europe and Japan could be leveraged into a de facto global standard to the detriment of the United States, has voiced strong reservations about the direction of 3G development in terms of Europe’s standards-setting process and its trade policy.
The White House has stopped short of publicly embracing CDMA convergence. But behind the scenes, sources say the administration is slowly warming to CDMA convergence. Still the administration cannot publicly embrace that position because U.S. officials are on record supporting multiple standards.
In a speech Friday before international business executives at the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue in Charlotte, N.C., Vice President Gore vaguely alluded to a European system under fire by Qualcomm Inc., Lucent Technologies Inc. and U.S. lawmakers.
“We hope the EU sees the advent of the EMU [European Monetary Union] as an opportunity to press ahead with long-needed structural reforms-and more broadly-to ensure that their policies support strong growth in domestic demand,” said Gore.
“Now more than ever,” he stated, “America will be well-served by a Europe that is a larger trading partner for the United States and a stronger partner in helping to confront global challenges.”
Qualcomm, a leading CDMA technology developer and manufacturer in San Diego, is leading the charge for convergence. Lucent is closely aligned with Qualcomm on the issue. Motorola Inc., the top U.S. paging and mobile phone manufacturer and a stalwart supplier overseas, has taken a neutral posture as has Nortel Networks, a leading Canadian wireless equipment manufacturer.
The International Telecommunication Union is scheduled to make a decision next March on 15 3G standards submitted from around the world. The ITU is expected to approve a family of 3G standards. The European Parliament, for its part, is due to approve a directive by late this year or in early 1999 for the 15-member countries to deploy W-CDMA for 3G.
Some critics say Qualcomm is playing the part of spoiler because it wants to get its CDMA patents incorporated into a converged CDMA 3G standard that would be less sophisticated than W-CDMA.
Technical working groups, consisting of government and industry participants, last week began the consensus-building process on 3G during a three-day meeting in London that will extend another two weeks in the English Channel island of Jersey.
Representing the United States from the Federal Communications Commission on ITU working groups are Henry Straube, head of the U.S. delegation and senior engineering adviser to the International Bureau; Richard Engelman, chief of the planning and negotiations division of the International Bureau; and Peter Pappas, assistant chief of the International Bureau.
Intense lobbying on 3G continues at the White House, on Capitol Hill and at the FCC, the Commerce Department and the State Department.
Last Thursday, before leaving for the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue, Qualcomm Chairman Irwin Jacobs made the rounds with top government officials here. Jacobs, armed with strong messages from Crane, Matsui, Morella and Bingaman, had a captive audience of Vice President Gore, USTR Barshefsky, Commerce Secretary William Daley, FCC Chairman Bill Kennard, FCC Commissioner Susan Ness, FCC International Bureau Chief Gina Keeney, European Commission Vice Chairman Sir Leon Brittan, World Trade Organization Director Renato Ruggiero, outgoing White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and Justice Department antitrust czar Joel Klein.
In addition to Jacobs, high-level executives from Ericsson, Lucent, Nokia and Omnipoint Communications Inc. attended the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue.
