FCC chairman calls himself 'reluctant' regulator

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will not impose regulation without careful study and forethought, after options for voluntary self-regulation have been examined and rejected, according to FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who spoke Tuesday at the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) annual wireless show in Orlando.

In the hands of the FCC chairman, regulation will be a "reluctant trigger, not an affirmative one," as a means of sparking changes in industry, he said.

However, the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks changed government priorities, he acknowledged. Public safety issues such as the E-911 mandate on cellular phone carriers to install technology for pinpointing an emergency caller, or giving emergency workers priority access to telecommunication resources, have taken on a new importance.

Although the priority access and E-911 issues had some momentum before the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, "the landslide occurred on Sept. 11," he said. "Priority access is not something that showed up on Sept. 11... but Sept. 11 changed everything."

The FCC will be ready to impose requirements on the wireless industry, but Powell would prefer voluntary initiatives, he said. "There will be certain government policies and mandates that cost them (industry players) money," he added, referring to the E-911 mandate.

Powell was pressed by Tom Wheeler, CTIA president and CEO, to explain the FCC thinking on spectrum management. Wireless service providers have been pushing for more radio spectrum in order to expand their services using third-generation (3G) high-speed wireless data technology. While seeming to be generally receptive to the wireless industry's interests, Powell cited the cacophony of policy-making noise caused by different government agencies with claims on spectrum management, and the clash of political interests, as impediments to policy change.

"Judge us by what is done, not by the natural cacophony of lawmaking," he said.

The government needs spectrum management policies that allow for the flexible use of wireless spectrum in the marketplace, he said. But the process of getting that spectrum into its highest and best uses is as slow as an infantryman's crawl, Powell said. And while he noted that long-term plans for spectrum policy could be beneficial, Powell likened the task to that of a communist central planning committee -- a harsh rebuke coming from an avowed champion of the market.

"We'll ask Mr. Gorbachev about 10- and five-year plans," he said, referring to Wednesday's show-closing keynote speaker, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.