FCC TO CONDUCT THOROUGH REVIEW OF MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES

“At some point you have to be honest with yourself and say ‘This is not working,'” FCC Chmn. Powell said Wed., reflecting on Commission’s 6-year losing record in federal court on its media ownership rules. Powell told Vienna, Va., breakfast hosted by Northern Va. Technology Council, CapNet and Information Technology Assn. of America that FCC “needs to do an extraordinary study of the media space today.” FCC spokesman told us after speech that agency’s Media Ownership Task Force was determining how that would be done, perhaps through Notice of Inquiry (NoI), but promised proceeding would be open to public comment.

On day House voted on Tauzin-Dingell bill (see separate story, this issue), Powell also said broadband was “the central communications policy issue of the day.” However, asked about bill later, he declined to express opinion on bill other than to thank House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.) for proposing amendment that would increase amount FCC could fine Bells for violating Telecom Act. He said TV ads for and against Tauzin-Dingell “are about to make my hair fall out. They're gross and disgusting on both sides.”

“Media ownership is broken,” Powell said. He said latest court ruling on media ownership came as no surprise to him, but he was disappointed that if FCC were unable to justify rules, they would vanish entirely: “We should take the rules away because of judgment and forethought, not because of a failure to defend.” That said, Powell questioned whether current media ownership restrictions really guaranteed diversity of opinions, particularly when so many waivers had been issued over years: “The rules are not rules, waiver policies are rules.” He said diversity of voices remained critical goal, but FCC’s new task would be to determine to what extent rules actually served that goal, or whether other rules might work better. As part of examination, he said FCC would look at various markets, such as Chicago, where Tribune Co. has been allowed to operate newspaper and TV station.

As for broadband, Powell said “this is not a software issue… We're talking about digging up your neighborhood.” He said he would do what he could at FCC to encourage networks of varying technologies to be built. He also said he wanted competition, but acknowledged “we don’t make competition.” FCC recently issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would classify wireline access to Internet as information service, something supported by Bell companies. However, after speech Powell denied that he or his colleagues were influenced by Bells. “I don’t care what the Bells’ lobbying position is,” he said, saying that “one thing I don’t like about the FCC” is that it’s filled with lobbyists, and outsiders assume they influence policy decisions. Powell pointed to report titled Bringing Home the Bits by National Academy of Sciences (NAS). He said his broadband approach was very similar to that report, “and that was written by a bunch of academics,” not lobbyists.

Powell also said FCC was limited in what it could do in promoting broadband because while it regulated infrastructure, it didn’t have direct jurisdiction over content-related issues such as intellectual property disputes. “Broadband crosses many agencies… nobody owns it,” he said. Audience member suggested that just as Industrial Revolution led to creation of Commerce and Labor Depts., perhaps current revolution might lead to creation of Dept. of Information Technology, with FCC as agency’s “kernel.” “I hope not,” Powell said quickly, adding broadband doesn’t need more bureaucrats: “The central challenges and obstacles [to broadband deployment] are not governmental.” Powell added that “government agencies, including my own, which I love, don’t have the ability to move at the speeds needed” to spur broadband effectively. He did point to restructuring he had initiated at FCC, however, saying he hoped it would lead to agency that was “dynamic, nimble, less arrogant… and fleet-footed.”

Spectrum policy also is “broken,” Powell said. He said wireless technology was full of great innovations, but restrictive spectrum management based on broadcasting model was preventing spectrum to “migrate to the best use.” He offered no details on how to reform spectrum policy, task that FCC shares with Dept. of Commerce’s NTIA, but after his speech he said he would like to see more flexibility in spectrum use, as well as secondary spectrum markets.