Doyle 'in Negotiations' With Pai on BDS Overhaul Rollout
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's business data services overhaul may be the subject of some negotiation over certain aspects of its rollout, House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., said in an interview Wednesday. “He and I have spoken personally,”…
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said Doyle, who has fought for BDS overhaul for years and is unhappy with the overall direction of Pai’s draft item. “I’m still working with him on if this is to be on how it’s rolled out. We’re still sort of in negotiations on that.” The item was released in draft form last week and tentatively scheduled for consideration at the April 20 commission meeting (see 1703300052), with some expecting a 2-1 vote with the agency's sole Democratic member, Mignon Clyburn, opposed (see 1704050048 and 1704030050). “I think he’s going to move forward with the deregulation; the question is how quickly that takes place," Doyle told us of his understanding. "Is it like a flash cut or you have a break-in period where it’s done over a period of time so that people can adjust to the changes in the market? That’s not been determined yet; that’s what we were talking about. But I think he’s made it pretty clear he’ll move forward with deregulating most of the market.” Doyle sees bad consequences of such deregulation: “The end result is going to be increased prices on the backbone and on people that use business data services,” Doyle said. “We were hoping for him to continue the fact-finding that was started, but he’s made a decision to say, ‘Well, there’s competition in these markets and therefore we’re deregulating about three-quarters.’” Doyle cited the issue briefly during a Wednesday spectrum hearing when questioning witnesses. Doyle said he wanted to mention the issue “in light of when you talk about 5G deployment, one of the components of that is the cost of the backbone.” He backed former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's efforts on BDS: “We came so close to getting it done, and we just weren’t able to get that third vote.” Pai now is “moving forward to deregulate BDS prematurely, I believe." During the hearing, CTIA Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Scott Bergmann didn’t comment on Pai’s item and noted CTIA members differ on how they think backhaul should be regulated. “We are always trying to find ways to drive down cost,” Bergmann said. An FCC spokesman declined comment on any talks with Doyle.