Wireless Is Key to Post-Brand X Broadband Competition, FCC Staffers Say
Now that the high court has ruled in Brand X, “the role of wireless is going to become more important,” Barry Ohlson, advisor Comr. Adelstein, said Wed. at the Wireless Communications Assn. (WCA) conference. “People will look more toward wireless, because they won’t be able to use the same tools that were previously available,” he said.
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Reclassifying cable modems as information services in light of the Brand X decision, and perhaps giving the same status to wireline broadband services, means the FCC no longer can require cable companies and telcos to provide access to broadband competitors, he said. As a result, wireless service -"the third pipe” -- will be the only competitive option for the near future.
“There will be more need for intermodal competition,” said Paul Margie, Legal Advisor to Comr. Copps. He said “competitors, both independents and incumbents, will turn to wireless” until other options, such as broadband over power lines and broadband satellites, become more available.
“The question is, how much can we [the FCC] impose social obligations such as universal service and public safety” on cable companies under the new Title I reclassification, Ohlson said. Under Title I, which includes information services, companies may extend competitive access to their networks, but are not obliged to do so.
“There are pockets out there where there’s not enough broadband competition,” Ohlson said in explaining why the FCC has encouraged some municipalities’ efforts to extend wireless broadband services to residents.
The Commission should look at “why some countries seem to be doing better than the U.S. in getting more bandwidth for the buck,” Margie said. “There’s no silver bullet as to what we do” to promote competition, noting that “most people would admit there are places where there will be market failures.” But the FCC wants to give the wireless industry the tools it needs to compete, including “stability and predictability on interference issues,” he said.
One of Copps’s goals is to “step out of the way and make spectrum available… to drive prices down and speeds up,” Margie said. Ohlson also noted that Adelstein “fully supports the [spectrum] auction next summer.” He said “the timing couldn’t be better. I would be very surprised if that date slipped.”