NEW ORLEANS-William Kennard, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, told a
receptive Wireless ’99 General Session crowd on Tuesday he believes calling party pays will lead to wireless
competing with wireline for minutes of use. “Only 5 percent of phone calls now are made on mobile phones. I
think that number would increase dramatically with a calling-party-pays system,” Kennard said.
A CPP notice
of proposed rule making will be on the agenda of a “Wireless Day”-a regular FCC meeting that will have
only wireless items on the agenda-in May or June, said Kennard’s legal adviser Ari Fitzgerald. The NPRM will focus
on customer notification and billing issues associated with CPP, Fitzgerald said. “It will be a difficult proceeding,
but [Kennard] has laid a stake in the ground.”
The CPP issues to be examined in the NPRM are not very hard
and easily can be settled, said S. Mark Tuller, vice president for legal and external affairs, general counsel and secretary
for Bell Atlantic Mobile.
It is “just and reasonable” to have customer notification since the United States
has not generally had CPP, said Tuller.
On the issue of billing, Tuller does not believe the FCC should become
involved because billing is a deregulated service.
For these reasons, Tuller believes the FCC should move quickly
on CPP rather than waiting for a wireless day to issue an NPRM, which then would require a complete comment cycle.
“I applaud the FCC [for indicating approval for CPP … [but] the market’s need is now because CPP does not need
to be overly complicated … [With a little clarification] it can happen materially faster,” he said.
Kennard’s
acceptance of CPP is a win for those in the industry interested in using CPP to win customers. That view is not
universally accepted within the wireless industry, notwithstanding a letter from the board of directors of the Cellular
Telecommunications Industry Association sent to Kennard in December.
Some carriers have tried CPP and it has
not succeeded for them. These trials have led other carriers to be skeptical it will work. Other carriers offer CPP-like
services such as splitting the cost of incoming long-distance charges and having the receiver pay a local-access
fee.
Another item on the Wireless Day agenda will be an item addressing enhanced 911 implementation issues such
as limited liability and cost recovery for both Phase I and Phase II FCC requirements, Fitzgerald said. The strongest
signal issue will be decided before Wireless Day, he said.
It is unclear whether the technical standards implemented
in the digital wiretap act will be on the Wireless Day agenda, Fitzgerald said. “[The Communications Assistance
for Law Enforcement Act] should be handled around the same time-[we are reviewing the] cost estimates [from the
industry] but are also sensitive to the statute, so we are keeping in touch with law enforcement,” he said.
The
Wireless Day would be a prelude to what Kennard calls “the wireless century.”
“Let’s work
together to ensure that the 21st century is indeed the ‘wireless’ century. A century of freedom, untethered from the wires
of the past. A time when opportunity and responsibility can co-exist. An era when an industry that was underestimated
in the past can come of age in a way that benefits all Americans,” he said in closing his speech.
