Regulatory Certainty Said Needed for Wireless Broadband Growth

The FCC should “promote spectrum predictability” by conducting longer-term spectrum planning and providing the public with adequate notice and intervals between upcoming auctions, CTIA said. It urged the FCC to: (1) Promote flexible service and technical rules. (2) Use secondary markets that rely on voluntary arrangements. (3) Promote a market-based, deregulatory federal approach with minimal state regulatory requirements.

CTIA urged the Commission to expedite the DTV transition, for the first time publicly backing the Dec. 31, 2006, deadline. It acknowledged that “challenging public policy choices lie ahead,” but said “the increasing public demand for wireless broadband services, as well as the public safety benefits expected from the adjacent public safety spectrum, provides a compelling public interest basis for completing the DTV transition as expeditiously as possible.”

The FCC should assure licensees that any policy changes it adopts won’t compromise their ability to provide interference-free service to consumers, the Wireless Communications Assn. (WCA) said. It said it was “concerned” that the regulatory certainty principle wasn’t given “full effect” in the FCC’s wireless broadband policies. The Commission must be “vigilant in protecting incumbent licensees from interference when considering other non-traditional concepts for spectrum allocation, new approaches to licensing and band-specific service rules,” WCA said. It said the Commission should “carefully balance the ease of entry associated with its license-exempt regulatory paradigm against the benefits of licensing systems that provide greater interference protection to service providers.” It said the agency should “explore and refine innovative licensing systems” to speed broadband deployment by streamlining application processes, allowing the benefits of the license-exempt regulatory regime while affording basic interference protection to those who invest in the band.

The FCC should reduce regulatory risks “to a minimum” to promote competition between 3G service providers and unlicensed entrepreneurs using the Internet as a backbone, Cingular and BellSouth said in joint comments: “If the playing field is level and unencumbered by regulation, competitive market forces will pick the winners and losers, which will best serve the public interest.” The firms said the FCC should: (1) Ensure that “sufficient” licensed spectrum is available for wireless broadband services. (2) Provide the regulatory certainty by declaring wireless broadband offerings to be interstate information services subject to the Commission’s exclusive jurisdiction and affirming that spectrum licensees have exclusive use of and control over their licensed spectrum.

The Dept. of Justice (DoJ) urged the FCC to ensure that CALEA applies to wireless broadband services under a newly developed deregulatory framework. It said the Commission’s action should be consistent with its tentative conclusions in the pending CALEA rulemaking that facilities-based providers of broadband Internet access service, including wireless providers, are subject to CALEA.

DoJ said the FCC could adopt any of the 4 proposed options for establishing a deregulatory framework and “still preserve CALEA’s applicability” to wireless broadband providers. Those proposals are: (1) Classifying wireless broadband as “information services” under the Communications Act. (2) Examining whether wireless broadband might constitute an “interstate” service. (3) Using the CMRS regulatory scheme as a model for wireless broadband. (4) Clarifying the scope of state authority under Sec. 332(c) of the Act in setting “other terms and conditions” as applied to all CMRS, including wireless broadband services. It said under the first 2 options “CALEA’s applicability would be automatic and without question.” The other 2 wouldn’t “directly and unequivocally address CALEA’s applicability” and would require the FCC to adopt its tentative conclusions in the CALEA NPRM.