Frontline Uses iPhone to Argue for Open Access
Frontline plans a written response to a letter released late Friday by a bipartisan Congressional group that slammed its proposal to build a national fourth-generation wireless network for commercial and public-safety uses (CD Jul 2 p1), Frontline Vice Chairman Reed Hundt told reporters Monday. “They don’t seem to have heard of the iPhone,” said Hundt, a former FCC chairman. Frontline cited the iPhone’s launch to urge the FCC to make it even better by creating a national wireless fourth-generation network and mandating it be open to all. “If it isn’t open access then you will just recreate the deal you see with the iPhone -- the only communications device in America where the device is completely the slave of the network,” Hundt said.
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In listing supporters of Frontline, Hundt cited key Democrats Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., and House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass., plus Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona. None specifically endorses the Frontline proposal with the fervor seen in a letter by 16 congressmen denouncing “Frontline-type schemes.”
If the FCC doesn’t go with a public-private partnership requiring open access on the commercial portion, the risk is that incumbent carriers will win 700 MHz band spectrum and “put it in a drawer and leave it there,” said Hundt.
Through the CTIA, incumbents have been hitting back hard at Frontline. According to a June 28 ex parte filed by the association, in recent meetings with FCC officials, the wireless industry has declared Frontline’s claims of spectrum warehousing “unsubstantiated. Carriers who purchase spectrum licenses at auction have powerful economic incentives to put the spectrum to its highest use.”
Hundt does not blame AT&T for requiring that Apple sign an exclusive 5-year deal, he said. “That is like blaming the sun for global warming,” he said. But the exclusivity means iPhone users must be AT&T customers and must use the new device on a network as slow as dialup, he said. “The connection is a bridge back to the 20th Century. It is dial- up at best,” Hundt said. The FCC should plan the national network he envisions as it planned for TV, with licenses created for every market, he said.
The Republican-controlled FCC created this situation by allowing telecommunications mergers and eliminating spectrum caps, said Hundt. The government can change the situation but options are running out, he said. “There is one last chance for the government to solve the problem. The last chance is called the last auction. The last dance at the last auction is the Frontline plan,” he said. Key to the Frontline plan would be its status as an “independent” nationwide 4G network, a word Hundt used four times.
It would take billions to upgrade Verizon’s network to a nationwide network functional for public safety, said Hundt. For this reason, he wants safety at least to remain neutral on the Frontline plan. Frontline has made inroads with public safety, he said, noting that safety now accepts Frontline’s definition of national.
Frontline officially and directly will be inviting Verizon to participate in a public forum on the 700 MHz band now that Hundt’s offer to debate Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg has fallen on deaf ears (CD Jun 29 p10). “I don’t believe there is any way to discuss the E-block in this context until Verizon comes forward and tells us their plans for this spectrum,” he said.