Wireless Bureau to Play Active, But Secondary Role on USF, Milkman Say
The FCC Wireless Bureau made significant progress over the last year following up on March’s National Broadband Plan, Chief Ruth Milkman said in an interview Wednesday, after speaking at an FCBA lunch. Milkman also said the bureau plans to play an active role in the Universal Service Fund proceeding early in 2011.
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At the FCBA annual meeting in May, Milkman disputed suggestions the FCC would have trouble handling the huge number of proceedings discussed in the broadband plan (CD May 4 p2). “Just watch us,” she said then. “I feel like we've done a lot,” she said Tuesday, citing Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) and Wireless Communications Service (WCS) orders, among others. “I look back at the last year and we got out the MSS report. We got WCS done finally, which had been bottled up for years,” Milkman said. “We got wireless backhaul out. We made a really good start on a lot of stuff. Some stuff I thought we would get to we didn’t get to. I feel good about what we've done. You always wish you could have done more, I guess."
The net neutrality proceeding gobbled up some staff time, but didn’t slow work on most issues before the bureau, Milkman said. “There are a lot of individual reasons why different proceedings got delayed,” she said. “Open Internet had nothing to do with the D-block. … It did take some time, but I've got a big and talented staff."
Milkman sees USF as a key focus for the bureau this year. “Our auctions group has been very involved,” she said. “To the extent that you have a proposal that includes some kind of competitive bidding we have the expertise to help with that.” USF reform is “a big deal,” she stressed. “Wireline has the lead, but it’s a priority for the commission so we're putting the resources into it that need to be put in.”
NTIA Associate Administrator Karl Nebbia complained Tuesday that wireless carriers were too focused on the 1755-1780 MHz band, with few other suggestions for spectrum that might be suitable for broadband (CD Jan 12 p1). “I haven’t perceived that,” Milkman said, asked about Nebbia’s comments. “We talk to lots of different parts of the industry all the time. I do think that the industry is in part being responsive to NTIA saying we can’t look at everything across the board all the time or it will take forever, so help us prioritize. They're saying loud and clear, ‘Here’s the top priority.'"
Milkman and her top staffers took questions at an FCBA Wireless Committee lunch Wednesday. Joining her were deputy chiefs James Schlichting, John Leibovitz and Michael McKenzie, and Associate Chief Jane Jackson. They broke little new ground as they answered questions from FCBA members.
Schlichting said the bureau has nearly finished the next wireless competition report. “We're trying to put the final touches on it before we put it before the commissioners,” he said.
Milkman said the staff had completed its review of whether TV white spaces spectrum should be made available in some rural areas for wireless backhaul and made a recommendation. “I think that’s about all I can say about it right now,” she said. The bureau “is actively working” on a data roaming order, she said.