Telecom industry sees merit in Commerce Dept. plan to appoint commercial and environmental stakeholders to Marine Protected Area Advisory Committee, measure that could balance nation’s conservation needs with deployment of submarine fiber systems, industry source said. Commerce Secy. Donald Evans said Mon. that White House had decided to retain Exec. Order 13,158, issued last year by Clinton Administration to coordinate nationwide marine sanctuary initiatives. Commerce in Jan. nominated 26 members representing federal, state and local resource management, science, policy and commercial interests. Nominees will serve on board pending security clearances and final review by Commerce Secy. “Conservation can be balanced with commercial and recreational activity,” Evans said. Panel, which will provide advice to Executive Branch without setting policy, could start useful dialog among stakeholders, industry source said. However, industry will monitor committee’s activities closely to ascertain whether it reaches “wrong” conclusions that might have negative impact on submarine fiber deployment, he said. Network operators had opportunity to apply for representation on panel, but didn’t see it as germane to telecom policy, source said. Govt.’s request last Aug. for nominations preceded related marine sanctuary policy developments that since have caught attention of industry, notably NOAA’s proposal (CD May 2 p4) to sell 25-year cable permits in protected areas for upfront $120,000 per mile of right-of-way fee, he said.
President Bush will send 2 more nominations to Senate for Commerce Dept., both with previous Commerce experience: (1) Linda Conlin, consultant with N.J.-based Conlin Group, to be asst. secy. of Commerce for trade and development. She was exec. dir. of N.J. Commerce and Economic Growth Commission 1994-1999, and served in administration of Bush’s father as asst. secy. of Commerce for marketing. (2) House Administration Committee staffer Otto Wolff to be asst. secy. of Commerce for administration as well as agency’s chief financial officer. He was deputy asst. secy. of Commerce for administration 1981-1993.
Regulators have “some culpability,” but overreaching by high- yield capital markets and companies themselves is more to blame for financial difficulties facing CLEC industry, FCC Chmn. Powell said in 2nd installment of Communications Daily interview. First part ran Tues (CD May 22 p2). “I think high-yield money went chasing unsound business fundamentals,” he said. Some companies were “short-term from the beginning… designed to get bought” or to take advantage of reciprocal compensation, Powell said.
It’s “too simplistic” to question whether FCC Chmn. Powell supports telecom competition just because he also advocates deregulation where appropriate, he said in interview with Communications Daily. “Of course we favor competition,” he said. “The policy of the entire country is to favor competition.” What has been misunderstood is more “subtle” question of when intervention is right and when it isn’t, he said. Powell said he didn’t believe in jumping too quickly into new regulations or keeping old ones that no longer are necessary. Telecom Act requires FCC to review regulations periodically and determine whether they still are appropriate, so this isn’t new concept, he said: “There are appropriate places for regulation, but they should be carefully scrutinized and one should be hesitant to interfere with those operations without clear and demonstrable reasons for doing so.”
Referral to House Judiciary Committee of data deregulation bill by House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) and ranking Democrat Dingell (Mich.) would enable Judiciary to address segments, but not all, of HR-1542, Judiciary spokesman said. Feedback from office of House Speaker Hastert (R-Ill.) to House Judiciary Committee Chmn. Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) indicated that Speaker would grant Sensenbrenner’s request for shared jurisdiction over Tauzin-Dingell, aide said. Although it remains unclear which segments of HR-1542 will become open to Judiciary’s scrutiny, members are likely to use anticipated 30-day window to tackle provisions that some feared would give Bell companies unfair advantage over competitors, he said.
Reflecting its growing interest in U.S., Bertelsmann is opening its first Washington, D.C., office, to be headed beginning June 4 by Justin Lilley, currently News Corp. vp-govt. relations. Creation of Washington office is one of first major moves by former Justice Dept. antitrust head Joel Klein, who became head of Bertelsmann’s U.S. operations Feb. 1. “Bertelsmann has clearly decided it wants to be a full-scale media player,” Lilley told us, “and they obviously see a regulatory and legislative component to that.” Lilley, whose main focus in past has been on mass media issues, said Washington office’s initial focus would be on Internet-type issues, such as e-commerce and copyright, but it would be ready for “any future business plans.” Bertelsmann has been widely speculated to be interested in U.S. broadcast, cable and motion picture businesses and is considered likely to become publicly owned in next few years. Klein, in announcing opening of office, said “our business is at an exciting juncture, with tremendous opportunities ahead.” Lilley has been counsel to House Commerce Committee, was member of Bush-Cheney transition team and has been in private legal practice. He will report directly to Klein as 2nd ranking official in News Corp. Washington office.
With decisions still pending on 3rd generation wireless spectrum, ITU Secy.-Gen. Yoshio Utsumi warned in Washington Wed. that U.S. “is at this moment left aside from the world trend” of 3G licensing. “Unfortunately, the U.S. doesn’t have secure frequencies for this service,” he said at PCIA news conference. “The development of 3G in the U.S. market is very, very crucial for the success of these services.” In separate interview, Utsumi told us he believed World Telecom Standardization Assembly (WTSA) in Montreal last fall and March IP telephony forum in Geneva had helped narrow “conception gap” on certain Internet policy issues between U.S. and other countries. In arena of ITU reform, he said recommendation would be made to ITU Council next month to create Satellite Backlog Action Group, nicknamed SATBAG, to focus on solution to satellite filings challenge that has faced ITU for years.
Several members of Senate Commerce Committee Wed. questioned Timothy Muris, nominee for FTC chmn., on writings he has published suggesting some merits to monopolies, lesson many previous govt. nominees have learned about personal paper trails. Still, Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) said Muris’s nomination had broad support in committee. McCain predicted nomination would be marked up next week and said he would push for floor vote before Memorial Day recess. Muris, who when not working in previous stints with the FTC had published many scholarly pieces, including controversial one titled “The FTC and the Law of Monopolization” in the Antitrust Law Journal last year, defended himself and his writings, even as Sen. Dorgan (D-N.D.) said: “I have some heartburn with some of the statements he’s made on monopolies.”
Senate Commerce Committee members are meeting separately with FCC nominees Michael Powell, Kathleen Abernathy, Kevin Martin and Michael Copps in preparation for May 17 confirmation hearing, Senate staffers said. Members Tues. (May 15) and today scheduled informal gatherings “to get to know” candidates and in advance of hearing express views on communications issues that would be tackled under nominees’ tenure at Commission, according to several staffers. “It’s standard procedure to meet in advance” of confirmation hearing, committee spokeswoman said. She wouldn’t rule out possible advance meetings between Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) and nominees, but wasn’t aware of specific questions that he intended to address. E-rate and rural network deployment will be focus of questions by committee members, other Senate staffers said.
CTIA asked President Bush to give Commerce Secy. Donald Evans “sufficient time” to complete 3rd-generation wireless spectrum assessment by delaying pending auctions. Govt. has been working toward July 31 deadline that FCC faces for spectrum allocation decision under timelines set out by President Clinton in executive memorandum last Oct. Request to Bush came as speculation has grown that Commerce Dept. wouldn’t necessarily be prepared to craft 3G decisions within tight schedule of executive memorandum anyway. Last week, House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R- Mich.) said panel’s hearings on issue were delayed because department wasn’t ready to unveil its “game plan” (CD May 14 p1). “Previous Administrations ignored this [3G] issue until it finally reached crisis proportions, leaving your Administration to inherit the crisis and make the tough decisions,” CTIA wrote Bush.