In an appearance this morning at a Seattle breakfast event, former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, now a partner at Patton Boggs, was careful not to offer any jabs at the current administration.
Instead, he focused on the current administration’s plans for rolling out a new national broadband plan, scheduled to be unveiled Tuesday. One subject that came up was the fight for open access to wireless networks, a key platform issue of his. In particular, he noted how the government is now more concerned about the obstructionist role that handset makers like Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) or Google (NSDQ: GOOG) play, than it is about the behavior of the wireless networks. But regulators have less control over the former.
Open access is a term Martin knows all about. During his stint as FCC Chairman, he helped push through rules in a spectrum auction that would require the winner—in this case, Verizon Wireless—to ensure open access to its network. While vague, it means that Verizon won’t be able to limit users, devices or applications on the network. However, Verizon has just started to build-out its 4G network, so it’s still unclear how that will be practiced. Martin said.
Martin: “I think what the commission did with the open access piece was an important step…Prior to 2007, there was resistance from the carriers to any kind of open architecture, including the inclusion of WiFi chips in devices, even though today that’s perceived as a helpful thing….But I think we haven’t been able to see the ultimate impact because they [Verizon] are still deploying it, I think it did contribute to the shift of the wireless industry, in general, and ultimately will benefit consumers.”
In one example of how the power over open access has shifted to the handset makers, the FCC opened an inquiry when Google’s voice-over-IP application was blocked from the iPhone. The blocking was initially blamed on AT&T (NYSE: T), but as it turned out, Apple was the one that vetoed it.
The FCC’s “direct authority is less and less the more it gets pushed out from the carriers. It has ways, but I think it’s more difficult…This was an issue when I was there, and there’s a balance between protecting a consumer’s rights and having access to the internet, and recognizing that carriers have to manage their networks…I think that you do need to find the appropriate balances and it gets more difficult the further outside the carrier you get.”
As for the national broadband plan, the commission has hinted at what may be included, but the strategy won’t be fully unveiled until March 16. One of the key issues is providing more spectrum to carriers to provide the fastest mobile broadband services in the world. Martin said that while he was Chairman, they almost tripled the amount of spectrum available for mobile broadband. He said the current administration is looking to double it. Currently, he said that all the U.S. carriers use 450 megahertz of spectrum, and the commission is looking to add an additional 500 MHz.