WASHINGTON-On one level, the wireless campaign on Capitol Hill this year was not unlike that of Congress as a whole. In the end, when it came time for Congress to adjourn for the year, lawmakers belatedly passed a handful of bills-mostly legislation to keep the government from shutting down-but otherwise left in limbo a host of important public-policy issues.
Then GOP lawmakers, who control the House and Senate, as well as Democrats, who believe they can reclaim the House in 2000, each claimed victory.
Likewise, the wireless industry and its adversaries-local zoning boards, trial lawyers, environmentalists, the Pentagon and others-got some things, but not everything, they sought from Congress. And all sides claimed victory.
Lawmakers had to scale back an industry-backed universal 911-liability bill to appease cities and states, which opposed the measure in its original form because a federal land tower-siting provision-designed to foster siting and to fund automatic vehicle location technology-trampled on local rights. So it was stripped out of the bill.
That did the trick. President Clinton on Oct. 26 signed the 911 bill into law, mandating a single wireless emergency telephone number and giving competitive wireless carriers the kind of 911-liability protection that monopoly landline telephone companies have had for years.
Local regulators could boast they made the powerful wireless industry blink, but industry got what it wanted: improved safety for consumers and a safe harbor from trial lawyers for carriers.
“We feel like our emphasis on competition, innovation and safety are starting to have an impact on Capitol Hill,” said Steven Berry, senior vice president for congressional affairs at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
Politics being fertile ground for strange bedfellows, the wireless industry would go on to join hands with local and state officials to announce new legislation to simplify wireless billing taxation. The bill is teed up for passage in 2000.
During the summer, lawmakers with defense oversight begrudgingly watered down a bill originally designed to give priority to Pentagon spectrum after pressure from industry and the administration. And the wireless industry breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
The Department of Defense ended up walking away with a little spectrum, but more importantly drew a line in the sand that will make any future transfers of military spectrum to the private sector tantamount to a declaration of war.
The industry may want to keep that in mind as it tries to round up more spectrum for third-generation wireless systems.
The industry and federal law enforcement made plenty of courtesy calls this year on the 1994 digital wiretap bill. The lobbying generated congressional letters here and there, but did not result in legislation.
The FBI can say it neutralized the telecom industry this year. But industry knows better; it laid the foundation on the Hill (and in court) for possible relief next year from requirements of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act.
On another level, the wireless campaign on Capitol Hill in 1999 can be seen as being as successful as any since 1993 when Congress largely erased state regulation of commercial wireless carriers.
Unlike 1993, the industry made its mark in Congress this year more by punching out unfriendly legislation than by getting friendly bills like 911 passed.
The Pentagon spectrum provision that industry crippled is the best example of how industry out-defensed the Department of Defense.
“We headed off legislation harmful to the industry and set the stage for next year,” said Dave Murray, director of legislative affairs for the Personal Communications Industry Association.
Indeed, the industry was on the field playing defense on Capitol Hill most of 1999. And, for the most part, it held the line.
When Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.) pushed an amendment on the House floor to give states more say on area-code policy, the industry went to its go-to guy on Capitol Hill. House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) swiftly made jambalaya out of the Bass amendment.
Bass’ bill to give states more authority over sighting never saw the light of day in the Big Easy’s telecom panel, either.
A further-reaching siting bill in the Senate, authored by Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), has not appeared on the radar screen of Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Elsewhere, the wireless industry reigned in legislation that initially included wireless carriers within the universe of telecom service providers subjected to slamming and cramming restrictions.
Another bill would have classified wireless carriers as utilities and required them to continue providing service for at least six months to bankrupt entities. The industry succeeded in getting that classification reclassified.
Also, the industry appears to have succeeded so far in ensuring broadband telecom legislation not mandate that Internet service providers have guaranteed access to commercial wireless operators.
Along with a strong defensive effort, industry lobbying paved the way for legislation next year to give wireless providers access to commercial and government buildings as prospective service providers.
In addition, the industry urged Congress that FCC reform legislation-which likely will be introduced next year-should shift the burden in favor of regulatory forbearance.
Overall, the FCC-particularly Chairman William Kennard-was one big punching bag for Congress this year. Not only did Republicans seem anxious to overhaul the FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, but it appeared at times they also wanted to usurp FCC and NTIA authority.
Kennard, for his part, did not help himself by his aggressive push for Internet hook-ups for schools and libraries, without resolving other pressing universal-service policy issues.
The FCC inspector general’s probe of Kennard’s handling of an enforcement case in Texas, an investigation the FCC chairman called for at McCain’s urging, may have further eroded Kennard’s standing on Capitol Hill.
Some things were simply out of the industry’s control. Congress, leery of a cellular privacy lawsuit involving two of its own-Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Rep. James McDermott (D-Wash.)-stayed away from legislation to bolster wireless privacy protection.
Other legislative issues-including spectrum-cap liberalization and the return of bankrupt NextWave Telecom Inc.’s 95 mobile-phone licenses to the FCC-brought to light deep divisions within the industry between entrenched carriers, represented by CTIA, and upstarts represented by PCIA.
