Baker Urges Slow, Steady Pace to Spectrum, USF Overhaul
Industry, public interest advocates and telecom regulators shouldn’t wait for a new Telecommunications Act and should instead focus on incremental, data-driven reform of spectrum and intercarrier compensation, FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker told a Federal Communications Bar Association luncheon in Washington Wednesday.
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Saying net neutrality had become the “will he or won’t he question” a la budding romances on television sitcoms, Baker said it was unlikely a new law would give the commission new authority to regulate the Internet. Instead, she urged those in the packed audience to focus on “living within our means” under the 1996 Telecom Act. That includes immediate action on spectrum allocation, universal service and intercarrier compensation, Baker said. “We cannot let another year go by without providing a clear roadmap to industry about future spectrum availability,” she said.
That doesn’t mean that the commission can act as if it’s Year Zero, Baker said. “If we drew up a spectrum allocation chart today or established a new intercarrier compensation regime, they would not look at all like the ones that frustrate us today,” she said. “Regardless, we must recognize our rules and past actions have created settled expectations -- from consumers to investors -- that we need to address.”
The government also should “release information it has at its finger tips,” Baker said. She said the spectrum secondary market has foundered because of “a lack of reliable data about spectrum availability and usage. … The commission can leverage the [FCC’s online spectrum]dashboard to lower transaction costs and help foster a private market to better use fallow spectrum across bands.”
Even if Congress won’t overhaul the Telecom Act, the commission can still “seek targeted statutory authority,” Baker added. First, the FCC “needs to do a better job communicating with the Hill,” especially on spectrum reform, she said.