As expected, President Bush formally announced he would nominate Michael Gallagher to head NTIA. Gallagher would succeed Nancy Victory, who already has left the agency. Gallagher was praised by several in industry and govt., with some highlighting his knowledge of spectrum issues. NTIA has some oversight of ICANN and is influential in federal broadband deployment policy.
Incoming CTIA Pres. Steve Largent told us in an interview Tues. the 2 “lifelines” he saw for the wireless industry were spectrum allocation and cash. “I think the regulatory regime and policy that affects the wireless industry at the state and federal level are critical components to both of those lifelines,” he told us. Largent compared taking current CTIA Pres. Tom Wheeler’s place to following in the footsteps of the “Vince Lombardi of the trade groups.”
With NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory set to step down from her post at the agency today (Fri.), former Deputy Dir. Michael Gallagher still appears to be a frontrunner to eventually fill her position on a permanent basis, several sources said. Who will step in as acting dir. following her exit wasn’t immediately clear Thurs., although one possibility was Fredrick Wentland, assoc. administrator-spectrum management at the agency. He has been acting deputy dir. since Gallagher stepped down from the number 2 slot at NTIA in May. Another possibility to fill in as dir. on an acting basis was seen as Chief Counsel Kathy Smith. Victory announced her plans to depart from the agency last month after nearly 2 years at NTIA’s helm. Several industry sources said Gallagher doesn’t appear to be the only candidate in the running for the job, but he’s seen as being a clear favorite, with strong support within the Commerce Dept. and elsewhere in the Bush Administration. Other names that have been mentioned in the past month as possible replacements for Victory have included House Commerce Committee Senior Counsel Howard Waltzman. Upon leaving NTIA in May, Gallagher became new deputy chief of staff for policy and counselor to Commerce Secy. Donald Evans. Before joining NTIA, Gallagher had been vp-state public policy at Verizon Wireless and earlier, an aide to then-Rep. Rick White (R-Wash.).
The Minn. PUC ruled that the voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) communications service of Vonage Holdings was a telephone service as defined by Minn. law. That finding (Case P-6214/C-03-108) means Vonage must obtain a PUC certificate, file tariffs and submit a plan to provide 911. The PUC was responding to a complaint by the Minn. Dept. of Commerce alleging Vonage was providing phone service without a state certificate or providing 911. Vonage had argued that its VoIP service was an unregulated information service that was not subject to state telecom regulation. The Minn. PUC staff said that from the perspective of a phone user, there was no difference between the service of Vonage and that of a phone company. The staff said Vonage advertised its offering as replacing a customer’s current phone provider and that state law defined phone service as being 2-way communications such as Vonage provided. The PUC didn’t address issues raised by some parties about the effects on universal service and intercarrier compensation if VoIP were ruled to be a phone service. The ruling simply established that the PUC had jurisdiction over Vonage because it was providing telephone service under Minn. law. The PUC gave Vonage 30 days from official publication of the order to comply.
Former Rep. Steve Largent (R-Okla.) confirmed to us Wed. that he was in the running for the top CTIA slot, which Pres. Tom Wheeler plans to vacate at the end of the year. “I am flattered and hope that it becomes a reality,” he said. An announcement on the closely watched search process has been expected as early as this week. However, Largent declined to say where the process stood, saying simply that he was cautiously optimistic about the outcome. Largent is a senior public policy consultant in the govt. affairs practice group at Wiley, Rein & Fielding. A NFL Hall of Fame former wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks was in Congress 1994-2002, including 7 years on the House Commerce Committee. Largent said his interest in telecom issues was particularly sparked when he worked under then Committee Chmn. Bliley (R-Va.) in the development of the Telecom Act. “I'd guess you'd have to say my personality and inclinations moved towards high-tech - - I love all the new gadgets and toys that have been coming online for the last 10 or 15 years,” he said. Largent said he had worked on some telecom issues since joining Wiley Rein in the last few months. “I was just getting my feet wet when the CTIA position became available,” he said. Largent left Congress last year to run for governor of Okla., ultimately losing that race to State Sen. Brad Henry (D) after having led most of the way. Last month, Rep. Pickering (R-Miss.) withdrew his name from consideration for CTIA’s top post, saying his decision came after a serious discussion with his family and the impact the job would have on his 5 sons. Largent’s confirmation Wed. that he had talked with CTIA about the job came after months of speculation about other reported candidates, including current CTIA senior vp-govt. affairs Steve Berry and ex-Defense Dept. spokeswoman Victoria Clarke. While in Congress, Largent had a relatively low public profile on wireless issues but had spoken out on parts of the Tauzin-Dingell bill, saying at one point that the benefits that Bell companies would receive would hamstring competition in the local loop even more.
The Minn. PUC ordered Qwest to pay $132,500 in penalties for retail service quality shortfalls in 2002, as required by its price cap regulation plan and the Minn. conditions for approval of the Qwest-U S West merger. The carrier must pay $105,000 to affected customers via 25-cent monthly bill credits for 12 months, and pay a $27,500 penalty to the state. The Minn. Dept. of Commerce said that despite missing certain specific targets, Qwest was in “substantial compliance” with the overall service quality goals of the regulation plan and merger order, so only minimum penalties were in order.
The Minn. PUC decided to set an end-office local switched termination rate of zero for Qwest and its facilities-based local exchange competitors. The zero rate will apply on all local switched minutes, including ISP traffic. The PUC was responding to a March petition by Qwest that said switching was switching, and if the PUC set a zero usage rate for switch ports in UNE pricing, then it also should set a zero usage rate for end-office local switching to terminate local calls of other carriers. The Minn. Dept. of Commerce and AT&T agreed with Qwest, but other CLECs argued that there was a cost difference between UNE switching and terminating end-office switching, and the switch owners were entitled to recover their costs of providing terminating switching. The PUC (Case P421/CI-03-384) said a zero termination usage rate was justified on the same grounds as a zero UNE switching usage rate -- namely, that usage-sensitive switching charges could have a discriminatory and anticompetitive effect.
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chmn. Burns (R-Mont.) and Commerce Committee ranking Democrat Hollings (S.C.) wrote to Treasury Secy. John Snow to express “serious reservations” about the proposed purchase of Global Crossing by Singapore Technologies Telemedia, which is owned and controlled by the Singapore govt. “In light of the recent reported opposition to the transaction by the Dept. of Defense and the Dept. of Homeland Security, we feel compelled to reiterate our longstanding views on this issue,” the letter said. Should the Committee of Foreign Investment in the U.S. approve the transaction, the Commerce Committee would likely hold a hearing to review the transaction, the letter said.
AT&T urged the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, N.Y., Mon. not to approve MCI/WorldCom’s bankruptcy reorganization plan in light of the charges that emerged this weekend of alleged access charge fraud by MCI. AT&T told the court that MCI’s reorganization plan, if approved, would deprive AT&T of the ability to file racketeering and fraud charges against MCI, which it planned to do.
The Senate Commerce Committee tentatively is scheduled to consider legislation Thurs. that would reauthorize the NTIA. The committee has considered several agency reauthorizations this year, including the FTC, FCC and Commerce Dept. Technology Administration (TA). A Senate source said the bill would be short and primarily would just establish a level of funding near the $19 million the Bush Administration requested for the agency. A Senate source said the bill also was likely include funding for the Technology Opportunity Program (TOP), which was phased out of this year’s White House budget. The bill hasn’t been introduced. The NTIA reauthorization legislation won’t address efforts by the Commerce Dept. to reorganize the TA to include NTIA. House and Senate Commerce Committee members have raised concerns that such a reorganization could alter congressional jurisdiction over issues such as spectrum management. The Commerce Dept. recently sent to Capitol Hill proposed legislation that would facilitate such a reorganization, but it hasn’t been introduced. A Commerce Dept. official said she expected the bill to be introduced in Sept., after the congressional recess, though she wouldn’t say which member would offer it. The Senate Commerce Committee has a markup scheduled Thurs., 9:30 a.m, Rm. 253, Russell Bldg.