MARTIN STRESSES CONGRESSIONAL WILL, COMPETITION, ENFORCEMENT

Another “prong” of his regulatory philosophy is importance of cooperation between state and federal govts., Martin said. He said he wants to make sure agency works closely with states in coordinating telecom and media policies. “A lot of issues that face the Commission also have jurisdictional implications that the Commission should have a cooperative role in making sure that states are empowered and that we are sensitive to the fact that states have a very important role in a lot of these issues,” he said.

Martin was sworn in as FCC commissioner earlier this month for term that runs through June 30, 2006. Martin, who had been legal adviser to then FCC Comr. Harold Furchtgott-Roth, is native of Charlotte area, had been special assistant to President Bush on economic policy, with focus on telecom issues, and was deputy gen. counsel to Bush campaign and Bush-Cheney transition team. Previously, he had been associate at Wiley, Rein & Fielding.

Using office last occupied by Comr. Tristani before she took over ex-Comr. Susan Ness’s office, Martin said he had switched desks to get one used by former Comrs. James Quello and Furchtgott-Roth. But, while he called Furchtgott-Roth “good boss and mentor and friend,” he disputed notion that he would adopt identical regulatory bent at Commission.

One area where Martin drew distinction between his perspective and that of Furchtgott-Roth was merger reviews. Furchtgott-Roth repeatedly criticized FCC for using its statutory authority over spectrum license transfers and general “public interest” mandate to impose antitrust conditions and other broad types of restraints on media and telecom transactions. Martin appeared to take view of merger conditions more closely aligned with that of Chmn. Powell, who has argued that such conditions should be merger specific. “When the Commission evaluates a potential merger and it determines that there’s some kind of harm, the conditions that are imposed should be related to the harm that has been identified,” Martin said, and he was “not opposed to the idea of conditions in general.” As examples of lessons learned while working for Furchtgott-Roth, he cited his concern for economic implications that FCC decisions could have, either intentionally or unintentionally.

Asked about possible dangers of further media consolidation, Martin said Commission should explore potential impact of major TV mergers. But he declined to say where he might come down on issue or on such related items as agency’s cable and broadcast ownership limits, which are either under review or scheduled to be reviewed later this year. “I think we need to seek out a record on it [consolidation],” he said.

Spectrum Balancing Important

On difficult 3rd generation wireless issues that FCC and other federal policymakers face, Martin cited that technology’s promise of new consumer services. But he said he still was examining lengthy record on issue at Commission before commenting on such matters as whether MMDS and Instructional TV Fixed Services licensees should be protected from having to relocate for 3G. He did say, however, that, “you have to be very careful about making sure that you're not encumbering any of the current license holders and that you're taking fully into account the Commission’s history of allowing people to provide particular service currently and the value that they're already providing.” He said: “There’s a careful balancing that you have to make in making sure that you're not going to be either encumbering them with insufficient interference rules and also taking fully into account the investments that they've already made.”

Increased interest in having federal govt. formulate national spectrum plan is “positive” although “the FCC only has a particular role,” with other parts of govt. playing part as well, Martin said. In general, he said, “spectrum is in increasing demand and efficient management certainly needs to be a top priority.” Spectrum is “critical issue” for govt. and will continue to be so as more wireless services are offered, he said.

Martin stressed a top priority was regulatory stability, which involves “quicker decision-making and also trying to take into account and be sensitive to the legal challenges that many of our orders have faced.” Commission decisions should be “as close as possible to a constructive and easy read of the statute,” he said. New commissioner cited reciprocal compensation as “prime example” of issue on which FCC’s decision process had large impact “and provided an unstable regulatory environment for an extended period of time.” Extent to which past FCC actions in that area were “ambiguous or somewhat unclear and/or contradictory may have contributed to that uncertainty about what the Commission was doing and some of the legal uncertainty, as well,” he said. Responding to question about what role, if any, FCC should play in sustaining CLECs as viable competitors, Martin said Commission shouldn’t “be in the game, so to speak, of trying to keep any particular company alive or not alive.” But he said, “on the other hand, I think it definitely needs to be cognizant of the impact that its regulations are going to have on the marketplace and that it shouldn’t be in the practice of picking winners and losers in the free market.”

Broadband Services Priority

Martin said promoting greater availability of broadband services would be one of his top priorities at FCC. Although he offered no specific proposals, he said that encouraging broadband deployment “should be on the forefront” of Commission’s agenda because of issue’s importance and its “increasing interest to consumers and businesses” throughout nation. “It’s an issue that cuts across the agency,” he told us. Citing concerns about possible “digital divide” between broadband haves and have-nots, he said one of his goals was to “make sure no area is left behind” in telephone, cable and other broadband rollouts.

Martin declined to say where he might stand on FCC’s inquiries on cable open access or on interactive TV (ITV). He said that, in his 2nd full week on job, he was “still trying to get up to speed” on those and other pending issues before agency.

Questioned about sluggish pace of nation’s DTV transition, Martin said he was aware that “everyone was hopeful it could have proceeded faster.” He said he also knew that FCC, while having “set the technical rules of the game,” still had such key issues as cable interoperability to tackle. But he declined to spell out any steps Commission should take on DTV-cable compatibility, digital must-carry and related issues, saying he needed more time to study them.

Turning to other media issues, Martin: (1) Showed little inclination to join crusade of Comrs. Tristani and Copps against indecent radio and TV programming. Although he called obscenity “an important issue that the Commission needs to be sensitive to,” he expressed concerns about agency’s becoming involved in “the regulation of free speech.” (2) Said he had “no specific thoughts” about whether govt. should extend or expand cable program access rules, now set to expire next year. (3) Called regulatory parity between industries something “important to keep in mind” but said concept shouldn’t be overarching concern of regulators.