Decision Time Near on 700 MHz Interoperability Mandate, Clyburn Says
LAS VEGAS -- Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said this week she’s still considering whether the FCC should impose an interoperability mandate for the lower 700 MHz band, a top priority of small carriers led by the Competitive Carriers Association. In March, the commission released a notice of proposed rulemaking examining (http://xrl.us/bn98rf) issues related to a mandate. Chairman Julius Genachowski and other officials said then that the FCC should put off imposing any requirement until industry groups have a chance to work out a voluntary agreement.
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"I am still hopeful that there will be a voluntary solution put forth,” Clyburn told us: “I am not sure where we are. March will mark a year. While I remain encouraged, I will not shy away if moving forward with a commission-based solution is warranted, if we can seem to get at a voluntary” agreement. Clyburn isn’t certain industry will be able to reach a voluntary agreement without a push, she said. “I am hopeful that the signals I have sent out will let the community know ... this commissioner would not mind encouraging a commission-based solution."
Clyburn, as well as commissioners Robert McDowell, Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai, spoke on a CES panel Wednesday, following the chairman’s annual interview with CEA President Gary Shapiro (CD Jan 10 p9). The commissioners’ discussion was mostly friendly, though it sometimes turned pointed. Pai and Rosenworcel were making their first visits to CES as members of the commission.
McDowell complained about the slow pace of commercialization of devices designed to use the TV white spaces to access the Internet. “Every year I think it will be the next CES we will start seeing white-spaces devices being debuted, but unfortunately it has taken awhile,” he said.
Pai said taking a deeper dive on the Internet Protocol transition is critical. “In a competitive all-IP world, what is the role of FCC regulation?” he asked. “Which of the economic regulations should we export to the IP world and which should we jettison? Which of the consumer protections should we apply to the IP world and which are less important? Those are the important questions that we're going to have to answer."
McDowell and Clyburn disagreed sharply on the 2010 net neutrality order. “There wasn’t a problem before the order and there’s not a problem after the order,” McDowell said. “That was the heart of my dissent. There was not a market failure and we never conducted a market study and didn’t produce any evidence there was any systemic market failure to begin with."
The FCC needs “high-level rules that affirm that every single one in this room, every single one in this nation has the ability to use a device that’s not harmful to the network, to not expect to be blocked when they are trying to access lawful content, to present their point of view,” Clyburn said. She said she’s “confident” the rules will be upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. If the rules are overturned, “we will make our assessment at that time, but I am confident the court will agree,” she said.
"I have no legal crystal ball,” Rosenworcel said. “But I think the point of any such policy should be this: We need to balance the incentives for deployment of network infrastructure with the incentives of Internet applications and services. I think the rules that we have in place are a fair attempt to do that, but we're obviously going to have to revisit these issues in the aftermath of any court decision."
Pai “personally” has “doubts as to the extent of the commission’s legal authority in this area, but, of course, as my colleagues have pointed out, that question will be answered in the first instance by the court,” he said. But Pai also said the rules raise a broader policy issue. “Do you want the FCC to inject itself into a whole panoply of network management decisions made by private broadband providers?” he asked. “If the answer is ‘yes,’ you have to have some sort of limiting principle, and for the life of me I just can’t discern one."
Asked whether the FCC would meet a target date of 2014 for an incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum, Clyburn said she’s confident the commission would meet that goal. “There is, has been, will continue to be ongoing engagement,” she said. “This is a very dynamic item. I think if there is any opportunity for us to be on target, there are all sorts of incentives ... that will get us there in that timeframe. Yes, it’s aggressive. We are working extremely hard."
"We would all love for it to be as soon as possible,” McDowell said. “I lived through two of the largest spectrum auctions in FCC history -- AWS-1 and 700 MHz. Especially 700 MHz, we actually had industry come to us asking for delay. There were a lot of twists and turns that weren’t foreseen. While I hope, and will work as hard as I can to make sure it’s 2014 ... these things can take longer than you hope or expect, especially when you've got literally the most complicated spectrum auction in world history.”