Wireless Broadband Order Likely to be Approved
FCC Chmn. Martin’s decision to circulate an order that would reclassify wireless broadband as a Title I information service the day before Thurs.’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing came as a surprise at the FCC and among wireless carriers. Even more of a surprise, sources said, was that the FCC would take the action sua sponte - on its own -- without being asked by carriers.
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Details are scant, but sources said the order is sweeping, applying to fixed and mobile devices across various services. Carriers in recent days have discussed asking for the reclassification, sources said. Sources agreed Fri. that, judging from the Commission’s record, it probably will approve the order.
“It’s hard to believe that in 2007 any of the other commissioners or anybody would object now that all the other broadband access services are being treated alike,” said an industry source: “I think everybody has accepted that, because it’s IP based and over the Internet, that these are services that don’t fit within the common carrier mold.” The source said carriers are offering dual-mode handsets that seamlessly switch between VoIP and wireless calls: “It makes no sense at all to have a call that is initiated under one regulatory regime… then being handed over and suddenly subject to an entirely different regulatory scheme.”
Martin is considered likely to get at least 3 votes from the Republican members of the FCC. Support from Comrs. Copps and Adelstein is less certain. In summer 2005, Martin won approval of the reclassification of DSL with the 2 Democrats concurring. That vote came within a month of the Supreme Court’s Brand X decision, which upheld an FCC order reclassifying cable modem service as a Title I service. Copps and Adelstein also concurred with last Nov.’s order reclassifying BPL as an information service.
Copps and Adelstein expressed reservations about the DSL and BPL orders. Copps said of the DSL order: “The handwriting is on the wall. DSL will be reclassified, either now or soon from now, whether I agree or not.”
Reclassifying wireless broadband could be much more complicated than similar actions on cable, DSL and BPL, because wireless falls under Title III, not Title II, which takes in wireline telecom services, said Harold Feld, senior vp of the Media Access Project: “We've always treated wireless differently… It’s going to take a little more than Brand X to resolve the classification issue on this one… Wireless is different. Licenses are granted by the Commission and the licensee has no rights other than what is said on the license. The notion that ‘it is a parallel service, so we will declare what you do an information service and only regulate it pursuant to our ancillary jurisdiction’ -- how can you do that?… I see how you can declare something that a Title III regulated licensee is doing through his license to only be regulated by Title I ancillary authority.” Doing so would be “the equivalent of the Magritte painting that says ‘This is not a pipe,'” he said.
But Steve Largent, pres. of CTIA, said reclassification is “the right move at the right time” by the FCC. “Classifying wireless broadband as an information service would mean the industry’s hallmarks of competition, innovation, and choice would kick high-speed access service into overdrive, and consumers will ultimately benefit the most from that,” he said. “It could also provide public safety with additional means to perform their critical tasks, and would give investors the ability to make decisions based on the market, and not regulation.”