WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission again plans to review the cap that limits the amount of spectrum wireless carriers can control to 45 megahertz in urban areas and 55 megahertz in rural areas.
In addition, the FCC said it will examine whether cellular cross-ownership rules are still necessary.
The FCC last reviewed the spectrum cap in fall 1999. The agency voted to study the issue again last week. At least one member of the commission, Harold Furchtgott-Roth, voted in favor of the notice of proposed rule making, but said he was disappointed the agency was not proposing to eliminate the rules altogether.
“The use of a spectrum cap is a drastic regulatory remedy that continues to search for a corresponding competitive ill. … I would have tentatively concluded here that the caps should be eliminated. Finally, I have grown impatient with the commission’s repeated re-examinations of these issues without substantial alterations in our policy approach,” said Furchtgott-Roth.
Many wireless carriers and Wall Street analysts believe the cap and ownership rules restrict necessary consolidation.
But the relief sought may take a while to come to fruition.
Rather than making any tentative conclusions, the FCC is seeking comment on a variety of related issues. Comments are due 60 days after the proposal is published in the Federal Register.
That could be a problem. The White House has said agencies are not to send any regulations to the Federal Register office until they had been reviewed by the Bush administration. An FCC spokesman said the agency was reviewing the White House memorandum to see how it applied to independent agencies.
New FCC Chairman Michael Powell has publicly said it might be time for the cap and ownership rules to go. All five commissioners, including outgoing Chairman William Kennard, voted in favor of the proposed rule making.
Kennard’s vacancy could stall the proposal because the two remaining Democrats on the commission-Susan Ness and Gloria Tristani-have voted to keep the caps.
Also, on the spectrum-cap front, Cingular Wireless Inc. is expected to ask the FCC to waive the spectrum cap.
This is an argument inherited from BellSouth Corp. BellSouth has consistently sought a waiver because it is .5 megahertz over the cap since the FCC classifies data-only specialized mobile radio services as commercial mobile radio service, which falls under the cap.
BellSouth took this issue to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, but lost. On Jan. 5, it asked the appeals court to again review the FCC’s spectrum cap policy in light of some changes that seemed to indicate the cap only applied to voice services.
