Communications Industry Will Spend Too Much Time Discussing Usage-Based Pricing, Pai Predicts

The communications industry and policymakers will spend too much time discussing “usage based pricing” for wireless carriers, said FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai. The agency has only limited authority to regulate usage-based pricing, and “too much oxygen” will be consumed by debate over that topic, he said Wednesday at a Cable Show luncheon. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel predicted the industry would focus unnecessarily on a la carte cable pricing, which she said would eventually happen due to market forces. “That change will be driven by consumers, not by legislation or regulation,” said Rosenworcel.

On the spectrum incentive auction, Pai said “any sensible spectrum policy” would incorporate unlicensed use, and that he believed the 5 GHz band would be useful for some of the new devices on exhibition at the NCTA’s show, which ended Wednesday. NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said the industry needs to develop new ways to share or clear the spectrum being used by the government, because it’s no longer possible to move government users to other spectrum. “We're at the end of the string on that,” said Strickling. He said the FCC needs to create “rules of engagement” to allow government and private uses in the same band.

Asked about the 1992 Cable Act, Pai said Congress should grant the FCC similar authority over cable to what it enjoys over wireline, which he said would allow the agency to change cable regulations in a way more suited to the current state of the industry. He compared the current rules governing cable to legacy telegraph regulations from 1936, which the commission recently relaxed.

Rosenworcel said in examining the new technology exhibited on the show’s floor, she was “struck by the personalization” of video viewing available to customers. Asked about Aereo’s streaming video service, she said she couldn’t predict how the many interrelated court cases will play out. “The FCC needs to pay attention to the consequences of how the courts view that service, because it will directly impact retransmission consent and how linear video is funded,” she said.