CONFLICTING SIGNALS WERE SENT LATE LAST WEEK over whether President-elect Barack Obama is close to naming a new chairman to the Federal Communications Commission and making other tech appointments, with intensified speculation coming after key lawmakers urged outgoing FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to defer decisions on controversial telecom matters to the next administration and Congress.
Two names prominently mentioned for the top FCC post were Julius Genachowski and Blair Levin. Both men are part of the Obama-Biden transition team’s tech-innovation working group and served at the FCC in the Clinton administration. Genachowski, a Harvard Law School classmate of Obama’s who co-founded Rock Creek Ventures and LaunchBox Digital, was chief counsel to ex-FCC chairman Reed Hundt. Levin, a managing director and tech analyst at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., was chief of staff to Hundt from 1993 to 1997.
Months of uncertainty
The transition process combined with the congressionally induced FCC decision-making stoppage could put major wireless and telecom issues in limbo for months, or until the FCC is reconstituted with a permanent successor to Martin and other new members. Michael Copps, one of the two Democrats on the GOP-led FCC, could be named acting chairman in the near term. Other FCC seats may change hands as well. Indeed, the dust may not settle until next spring or early summer insofar as the new makeup of the commission.
A letter to the FCC from the incoming chairmen of the Senate and House Commerce committees – Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) – that strongly suggested the FCC chief focus on the digital TV transition and hold off on nettlesome telecom issues appears to have marked the beginning of the end of the Martin era. Martin promptly cancelled a Dec. 18 meeting. The agenda included scheduled votes on Martin’s controversial free, family-friendly wireless broadband plan and relaxed enhanced 911 location accuracy requirements.
It remains unclear whether the FCC will act on any major wireless items before Martin surrenders his chairmanship early next year.
AWS-3 debate rages
Martin’s free wireless broadband initiative remains as controversial as ever. Two senior members of the House telecom subcommittee urged the FCC to vote internally on Martin’s broadband auction plan.
“We request that you resolve this matter on circulation in the near term by immediately adopting rules for a free nationwide wireless broadband network that will provide all Americans with high-speed data services,” said Reps. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) and Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) in a letter to FCC members Copps and Jonathan Adelstein.
The AWS-3 debate, largely shaped to date by technical arguments over whether a nationwide wireless broadband system would interfere with mobile-phone operations in adjacent frequencies, has now become a political quagmire.
“Most of the over 100 million adults in the United States who either rely on antiquated dial-up services or lack Internet access altogether come from low-income households or live in inner-city or rural settings where providers refuse to provide service,” wrote Rush and Towns. “This digital divide is intolerable and must be bridged. We believe a properly managed auction of the AWS-3 spectrum would go a long way in accomplishing just that. . Given the promising opportunity afforded by the AWS-3 auction and given that a prominent, minority-owned firm is directly involved in the proceedings, we are troubled by the cumbersome obstacles that this particular auction has faced over the years.”
M2Z Networks Inc., a Silicon Valley-funded startup that’s headed by former FCC wireless official John Muleta, is a major proponent of Martin’s wireless broadband plan. M2Z and the two House telecom subcommittee members claim the FCC is required by law to have already voted on the AWS-3 rulemaking. Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), who Obama has named as labor secretary, made the same assertion in an Oct. 3 letter to Martin. But the FCC rejected that argument in a brief filed with a federal appeals court in June.
“We are anxious to move forward on this proposal. We believe that providing free basic broadband to consumers will provide them with expanded access and choices to these services,” said Robert Kenny, an FCC spokesman. “The proposal remains on circulation for other commissioners to vote and we hope that they’ll support it and do so.”
The rulemaking, however, could pose a political predicament for Copps and Adelstein, the other FCC Democrat. On the one hand, Copps and Adelstein have advocated moving forward on the AWS-3 vote. However, they may be reluctant to back Martin on AWS-3 because doing so could trigger future political repercussions – something that is less of a concern to Martin. While Copps is awaiting word whether he’ll be asked to oversee the FCC temporarily, Adelstein’s nomination to a second term on the FCC remains pending in the Senate.
Copps’ and Adelstein’s offices declined to comment on the Rush-Towns letter.
The Bush administration and the mobile-phone industry oppose the Martin free wireless broadband plan.
