New Congress Doesn’t Change Much for Verizon Wireless, Counsel Says
The new makeup of Congress won’t derail the DTV transition or much of anything else pushed for by Verizon Wireless, Gen. Counsel Steve Zipperstein said at a quarterly news briefing Wed. on the carrier’s Washington issues. Because wireless issues have avoided polarization, he said, very little will change in how the company pursues its policy goals.
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The DTV legislation was bipartisan, Zipperstein said, “the result of carefully crafted compromises” among those interested. This means “what happened yesterday won’t have any impact on the integrity of the bill,” he said, responding to questions about possible Democratic intentions to revive matters on which they were dissatisfied with this Congress.
It’s “too early to speculate” what the Democrats’ victory means for a Telecom Bill rewrite, Zipperstein said. Very little in wireless policy is partisan, he said. He pointed to the passage of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, when “the House, Senate and White House were all Democratic.” That law first set aside spectrum for auction and greatly benefitted the wireless industry. The “proconsumer” reputation of Democrats isn’t entirely fair, Zipperstein added, if only because “I don’t think any of us view consumer protection as a partisan issue.”
Verizon Wireless is excited about the appointment of a Spectrum Advisory Committee (CD Nov 6 p8) and said the carrier would share its spectrum, at least in an emergency. An expected goal of the new Commerce Committee - made up in Zipperstein’s words of “a broad array of experts with a diversity of views” -- is a better policy on spectrum sharing and management. Zipperstein said “everyone agrees” that the industry’s goal should be maximum spectrum efficiency and said the carrier’s record of “enthusiastically” sharing spectrum with public safety during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath shows its willingness to compromise for the common good.