In the wake of last week’s House vote on Tauzin-Dingell, the focus of the broadband circus now moves on to other rings: the Senate, the FCC, and even the Supreme Court. More political animals than ever are expected to be on display when action resumes, with traditional telecommunications players in the show increasingly joined by Internet and other tech industry players. Yet, there’s an elephant missing from the tent: the Bush Administration. After months of internal deliberation, the executive branch has not staked out a position on broadband regulation. How and when it finally does so will be a critical factor in the show’s finale.
The recent 271-158 House vote for the Tauzin-Dingell bill was a significant boost for broadband deregulation. But conventional wisdom uniformly, and correctly, says the bill stands no chance in the Senate. Perhaps more fruitful would be a broader, less Bell-oriented approach addressing impediments to wireless and cable broadband, and broadband content, in addition to telephone issues. Otherwise, the Senate debate may disintegrate into efforts to increase regulation, not reduce it.
For these reasons, most eyes are focusing on ring number two, the FCC. The Commission now has five proceedings underway which promise regulatory relief of one kind or another for broadband. But no final actions have been taken; even tentative conclusions have been few. Many deregulation supporters are worried – why isn’t Chairman Powell moving faster?
One theory is that Powell is a follower of the “Powell Doctrine,” the military credo developed by his father, General Colin Powell: do not begin action against the enemy until your forces have overwhelming superiority. Just as Colin Powell waited until he had enough firepower to ensure a swift victory over entrenched Iraqi military forces, perhaps Michael Powell is waiting for the political firepower to ensure victory over entrenched telecom lobbying forces.
It is a cautious strategy, and one that may not fit well with telecom policy realities – overwhelming numbers may be harder to achieve on K Street than in Iraq. Nevertheless, it seems clear the FCC won’t be moving far on broadband without considerable outside support.
The strong House vote was one step toward that goal. The tech community’s increasingly clear support of regulatory change is another. Support by the Administration would be a third, and perhaps clinching, factor.
But the silence from the White House has been resounding. For months, there has been talk of a detailed broadband policy soon to come out. This week, it was rumored that Secretary of Commerce Don Evans, the Administration’s point man on technology policy, would finally announce that policy. But that was not to be. In two speeches this week, he stressed that broadband would be a priority for the Bush Administration. And, he stressed the importance of increasing broadband demand and of tax relief. But nothing was said about regulatory change, leaving that for another day. In fact, the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology, to which Evans spoke, indicated that it would focus on demand issues alone – and not on regulatory barriers to deployment.
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