Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

The FCC’s Wireless Bureau concluded that federal law preempted parts of an Anne Arundel County, Md., zoning ordinance that involved radio frequency interference. A local law required that before receiving a county zoning certificate, wireless tower owners must demonstrate that a tower didn’t interfere with the county’s public safety operations. If interference were shown, the county was allowed to revoke a zoning certificate. Cingular Wireless challenged those parts of the local ordinance in April, and the county sought dismissal of the petition, saying the courts -- not the FCC -- had exclusive purview over zoning actions that local govts. undertook that involved wireless facilities. The Bureau, in an order released Mon., disagreed, granting Cingular’s petition for a declaratory ruling. The provisions of the ordinance that were under challenge regulated radio frequency interference (RFI), “not traditional zoning functions,” and were preempted by federal law, the bureau held. “At the same time, we remain concerned about interference to the county’s public safety communications system and we expect that the parties will continue to work cooperatively to resolve these problems,” in line with previous FCC guidance, the agency said. It required the county, Cingular and Nextel to report to the bureau’s Commercial Wireless Div. within 30 and 90 days on progress of efforts at mitigating interference to public safety systems. The reported interference began in 1997 and involved 800 MHz public safety communications in the county. The county adopted an ordinance last year that required that before receiving a zoning certificate, a tower operator had to show that the planned site wouldn’t degrade or interfere with the county’s public radio systems. The FCC said: “The Commission and the federal courts have consistently found that the Commission’s authority in the area of RFI is exclusive and any attempt by state or local governments to regulate in the area of RFI is preempted.”

Several amendments were tacked onto the FCC Reauthorization Act (S-1264) that the Senate Commerce Committee passed Thurs., but it wasn’t the telecom “war” some lobbyists saw as possible earlier this week. Senate Appropriations Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) didn’t put forward an amendment to delay the wireless industry’s local number portability deadline, nor were TELRIC pricing or broadband UNE requirements mentioned. “Judging by the amendments filed, the truce in the battle of telecom titans is holding,” Senate Commerce Committee McCain said.

Several factors are holding back early attempts at deal making under the FCC’s new ownership rules adopted June 2 but not yet effective since they haven’t been published in the Federal Register. There’s much uncertainty because of court appeals to come, whether the rules will be stayed as requested by Comrs. Adelstein and Copps, and a Commission freeze on all transfer applications since new forms haven’t been approved by Office of Mgmt. & Budget and aren’t available.

Not surprisingly, most ex-FCC commissioners end up at law firms after their tenure ends, often doing communications law. However, former chairmen have tended recently to end up as executives of corporations in the telecom, media or Internet industries. But neither trend is universal. Some of them have faded into obscurity and others have moved into new businesses entirely. For example, former Comr. Rachelle Chong (1994-1997) now heads a retail jewelry business in San Francisco.

FCC ex-commissioners generally pass up the fame of high- profile govt. work to return to the private sector after they leave the Commission, according to our informal survey. Despite their prominence while they're at the FCC, in some cases it’s even hard to find them now, apparently indicating FCC seats aren’t necessarily good stepping stones. In general, ex-chairmen since 1980 seem to have more post-FCC success than commissioners, and there appears to be a growing trend toward both groups’ moving into the corporate world, rather than into law firms or other govt. jobs.

A week after the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., rejected a challenge to an FCC decision to retain wireless local number portability (LNP), both sides argued the technical details of implementation in comments to the FCC. AT&T Wireless said if the Commission couldn’t resolve issues “immediately” on porting obligations and roles, the FCC should again extend a Nov. 24 deadline to ensure operators could make changes in both wireless-to-wireless and wireline-to-wireless porting. Echoing concerns of other wireline carriers, Verizon opposed the CTIA petition, saying it marked an effort to blame LECS for the “supposed difficulties” faced by wireless operators on LNP. Some state regulators charged CTIA was undertaking a last-min. effort to delay LNP.

The FTC used reauthorization hearings in the House and Senate Wed. to push a sweeping proposal that, among other things, would end the 70-year exemption of telecom common carriers from FTC deceptive practices and unfair competition rules. The proposal prompted wariness from some House lawmakers, who worried about potential clashes between that agency and the FCC. Others questioned whether recommendations aimed at stepping up the FTC’s ability to fight cross-border fraud and spam via more extensive information-gathering and sharing powers raised privacy concerns.

The Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) should have the limited role of only setting up general logistical aspects of the Media Security & Reliability Council’s (MSRC) plans to improve emergency warning systems, council members were told at the group’s 3rd biannual meeting May 28 (CD May 29 p3). Media executives said in interviews after the meeting that federal govt. involvement of some sort was necessary, and many even suggested the Council would agree to work with any conditions DHS proposed.

The U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., Fri. turned down a wireless industry challenge to the FCC’s decision to retain the number portability requirement on wireless providers. CTIA and Verizon Wireless had challenged the Commission’s order last year that denied permanent forbearance from enforcement of the 1996 wireless portability rules.

President Bush signed an executive memorandum Thurs. that created a task force to recommend how to stimulate more efficient spectrum use by govt. users. NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory said the initiative would complement govt. efforts such as the FCC’s Spectrum Policy Task Force with a single interagency group directed to examine how ideas such as receiver standards and secondary markets could apply to govt. users.