Likely Federal Communications Commission chair Julius Genachowski has promised Senator John Kerry (D-MA) that he’ll give due attention to a petition asking the FCC to investigate exclusivity arrangements between handset manufacturers and wireless carriers. The most famous of these is AT&T’s deal with Apple for the iPhone. The White House’s pick to run the Commission also pledged to take action if the agency concludes that these arrangements hurt consumers.
The long standing request for action on this issue came from the Rural Cellular Association (RCA), which charges that they shortchange rural areas. "Yes, if confirmed, I will ensure that the full record on the RCA petition is reviewed, and act accordingly to promote competition and consumer choice," Genachowski declared in a set of formal responses to questions posed by Kerry. The responses followed his confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce and Science Committee on Tuesday. The committee quickly approved Genachowski’s nomination, which now must be voted on by the full Senate.
Interim FCC Chair Michael Copps spoke similar words on Thursday. He told a policy summit on broadband that he appreciated "the concerns that have been expressed on Capitol Hill and elsewhere, and I agree that we should open a proceeding to closely examine wireless handset exclusivity arrangements that have reportedly become more prevalent in recent years." Copps disclosed that he’s already instructed the agency to begin "crafting such an item."
I want to learn
Genachowski also responded to four other questions posed by Kerry, albeit with circumspect answers that probably stem from a desire not to commit to too much, too soon. To a query about addressing the "shocking lack of minority voices in media markets today," he promised to develop (take a deep breath here) "constitutionally permissible strategies to ensure that there is a wide dissemination of licenses so that women-owned, minority-owned, and small businesses have ample opportunity to compete, innovate, and contribute their voices to the national and local media marketplace."
And to Kerry’s concerns about "enhancing diversity in the radio business," Genachowski said that he looks forward "to learning more about the possibility of low-power FM radio as a new voice that could be licensed without harmful interference in communities around the nation." The House and Senate are currently considering bills that would expand the FCC’s ability to issue LPFM licenses.
The nominee did agree with Kerry that the agency should, as part of its National Broadband Plan, conduct a comprehensive inventory of all available spectrum and the ways that it is currently being used. Kerry has introduced a bill that would make a survey of spectrum use between 200MHz and 3.5GHz a requirement of the Communications Act. And, while Genachowski didn’t sign on to Kerry’s proposal to extend the Universal Service Fund’s "Lifeline" program to broadband, he called it "an idea that I am very interested in learning more about." At present the fund only subsidizes telephone service.
Two years from now
Kerry’s Lifeline question acknowledged that there is "considerable disagreement" about how the White House’s $7.2 billion in broadband stimulus money should be spent, specifically whether it should allocated to broadband rollout in rural areas, or to "demand side" programs (such as Lifeline) that encourage more consumers to buy high speed Internet.
"My concern is that we are funding projects that are sustainable beyond the 2 year window of funding availability—" Kerry told Genachowski, "the worst thing we could do is pour this money into projects that 2 years from now will not be viable."
Putting the unanswered questions aside, no one should be surprised that RCA is quite happy about Genachowski and Copps’ comments regarding exclusive handsets.
"It is RCA’s expectation that the FCC will find that there are significant consumer and competitive harms caused by such deals," Todd Lantor, the group’s attorney told us. "It is RCA’s hope that the Commission will move promptly on this item and ultimately decide that banning exclusive handset agreements is what the public interest dictates."
This post has been written by Matthew Lasar on June 21, 2009 10:03 PM couresy of arstechnica.com.
1,911 (4.93%)
1,265 (7.36%)
This week there are a record breaking number of eight newcomers this week. ‘Knowing’ which leads the chart while the sequel of ‘Night at the Museum’ reappears in the list as a R5 release.
