Public Knowledge joined 19 other public interest, rural, Native American, and consumer groups (including the Benton Foundation) in a letter urging Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to either issue a new Public Notice examining the classification of text messaging and short codes, or to classify both as Title II telecommunications services. 

On December 12, the FCC will vote on a Declaratory Ruling in the “Text Messaging Classification” proceeding. As currently written, the FCC’s draft Order will formally classify text messaging as a Title I information service under the Communications Act. Doing so will enable wireless carriers to discriminate against short-messaging services (SMS) and short codes, the standard five or six-digit vanity numbers used by organizations such as Catholic Relief Services for disaster relief campaigns, or by political campaigns and marketing firms. Public Knowledge, which has long spearheaded efforts to classify text messaging as a Title II “common carrier” telecommunications service, believes this action undermines the public’s right to use text messaging without undue interference from wireless companies. In addition to these concerns, the letter expresses concern that the proposed Order does not address how the potential loss of billions of dollars in revenue will impact the federal Universal Service Fund (USF), the primary federal subsidy for affordable telephone and broadband access.

Other signatories include Communications Workers of America, Consumer Reports, National Digital Inclusion Alliance, National Hispanic Media Coalition, and Tribal Digital Village Network.

With Democrats taking control of the House when the new session starts Jan 3, lawmakers and media players are re-adjusting their strategies and preparing for a slew of new hearings and investigations. Democrats have already started to circle their wagons around Nexstar’s proposed purchase of Tribune Media, with House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Ranking Member David Cicilline (D-RI) saying that the merger “would undoubtedly lead to mass layoffs in newsrooms at a time when our free and diverse press is already under assault.”

There have been no hearings in the House to examine the effects of the merger of Sprint/T-Mobile. But, while the House can put pressure on regulators, it can’t actually prevent a merger, said Gigi Sohn, Benton senior fellow and former counselor at the Federal Communications Commission. “Sprint/T-Mobile is in front of the FCC and the Department of Justice and is going to get a hearing,” Sohn projected.

George H.W. Bush was president before the iPhone, before Netflix, before Facebook. But his imprint was felt on the telecom and nascent tech sectors. “I think the most consequential part of that period would be the leadership in transitioning from analog to digital technologies,” said Al Sikes, who served as Federal Communications Commission chairman under Bush from 1989 to 1993. “We were an all-analog world except for the computer sector.” Sikes counts carving out spectrum for emerging technologies, such as mobile digital devices, as one of the Bush administration’s key tech achievements. On matters of telecom regulation, President Bush favored “a light hand,” Sikes said, a philosophy evident in his veto of the 1992 Cable Act. The House and Senate later overrode the veto. The law required cable operators to carry local broadcast channels without charge and allowed for broadcasters to collect retransmission fees on content. “I can recall meeting with the president who pretty much in what I would call a conservative vein talked about the need to talk about opportunities, not regulating the past,” Sikes said of Bush’s thinking. Andrew Schwartzman, the Benton Senior counselor at Georgetown University, said the Bush-era FCC “largely continued the deregulatory policies” of the Reagan administration.

Current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai offered up his own take on Bush’s “light hand” approach during an International Institute of Communicators forum. “In my view, regulators in the communications space would be well-served by President Bush’s prudence,” Chairman Pai said. “That means being skeptical toward preemptive regulation of new technologies — rules that try to predict market failures before they occur. Not gonna do it.” Microsoft President Brad Smith paid homage to Bush’s “thousand points of light” phrase — a message on volunteerism and nonprofit work in the U.S. — tying it to the tech giant’s Airband initiative to deliver wireless broadband to rural America.