WASHINGTON-The wireless industry has had explosive growth as a result of the policies championed by former FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy, said FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein at Abernathy’s final commission meeting last Friday.
“The explosion of wireless devices is partly due to your good work,” said Adelstein.
Abernathy left the Federal Communications Commission after serving four years. In an exit interview with RCR Wireless News last week, she said government doesn’t move fast enough, and agencies often choose to continue to gather more data rather than make decisions.
“It is difficult for government to have a sense of urgency when decisions are difficult,” she said. “I am the first to agree that we need good data. What tends to happen is that when the decisions are hard, the tendency is to gather more data. We need to be more responsive to the changing dynamics.”
Abernathy said this was a frustration she also bore when she was a lobbyist for both wireless and wireline carriers. After four years serving in government, she is still frustrated.
The pace of government may disappoint her, but Abernathy said her time on the commission has taught her the fine art of compromise.
“None of us get to write rules exactly the way we want. It does mean learning to work from a perspective of `what’s my bottom line,’ but you still work together or you get no decisions, and that is not good for consumers or for the industry,” said Abernathy.
Abernathy said one of the greatest accomplishments of the FCC during her tenure was spectrum reform. She said spectrum reform was an example of how the FCC has moved “in the direction from micromanagement to an environment that embraces competition and new technologies.”
As the other Republican under both former FCC chairman Michael Powell and current FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, Abernathy has seen two different management styles. While Powell was often in public battles with the commission’s two Democrats and Martin, the current chairman has been hailed as a consensus builder. Abernathy sees it a bit differently.
“I have also worked for multiple chief executive officers with different management types. I have worked with two different chairmen. They both appreciated that we had to make some tough calls and that we needed to work together,” she commented.
Despite some Republican attempts to eliminate the agency, Abernathy said the commission has an important role, especially since there are social obligations that increase carrier costs.
“I don’t think the agency should be abolished, but the agency needs to remake itself to better address a competitive world. For example, consumer issues-when you have multiple players, you have multiple opportunities for mischief,” she said.
Abernathy said she is taking some time off to spend the holiday season with her family and will begin pursuing other opportunities after the first of the year. President George W. Bush has yet to nominate a replacement.
