Telecom issues going nowhere in Washington

TELECOM ISSUES GOING NOWHERE IN WASHINGTON
[SOURCE: Telephony Online 6/22, AUTHOR: Carol Wilson]
Not only is major telecommunications reform completely unlikely in Washington this year, but significant issues that once seemed headed for action now are languishing, overshadowed by larger developments such as the war in Iraq and immigration. There are a few certainties -- the Federal Communications Commission’s 700 Megahertz auction is taking place beginning in January and rules for that auction must, by law, be established in advance, said Carol Mattey, national leader of the Regulatory Consulting Services Practice at Deloitte & Touche. The big issue there is whether the FCC will require incumbents who acquire spectrum, which is being surrendered by broadcasters, to open it up for third party use. Universal service, an issue that seemed certain to be addressed this year, is now looking less likely, Mattey said, in large part because of its complexity. “I think various members will continue to introduce bills, and will have hearings, but at the end of the day, I’m skeptical Congress will enact anything with respect to Universal Service,” she said. “There are a lot of difficult and intractable problems. If it had been easy to figure out how to solve it, people would have done it already.” Mattey believes that broadband penetration is another issue that will be much discussed, but see little real action. “The real disparity in broadband penetration is between rural areas served by rural telephone companies and those served by incumbents,” she said. “Rural telephone companies have actually undertaken a significant effort to upgrade their plant to provide DSL to their customers. It’s the areas that are served by larger incumbent telephone companies, which for economic and other reasons have focused DSL on larger and urbanized areas, that are underserved. As a matter of public policy,does Congress have the wherewithal to create incentives to create greater broadband penetration for those areas? If you fund out of USF, what is the price tag? Is it $10 billion a year, more than $10 billion a year?” Whatever the price, the government ­ and the taxpayers ­ would be the ones paying, Mattey said. Another much discussed issue, Network Neutrality, also seems to be losing steam, even in a Democratic-controlled Congress where proponents were thought to hold more sway.
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