Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Attorney Phil Verveer Sees Wireless Through Thick And Thin

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 13:42:49 -0400

Attorney Sees Wireless Through Thick And Thin
BY MARK ROCKWELL
MAY 15, 2003

Phil Verveer is probably the closest thing in spirit to the shrewd Start Wars'
character Yoda the wireless industry has. He has been with not only the wireless
industry since its birth decades ago, but also was a key player in its creation.
Although he hasn't been a widely known wireless industry character along the
lines of Craig McCaw, he, like the cellular billionaire, doesn't seek the
limelight,
yet his influence on the industry is wide and deep.

Verveer, a partner at renowned Washington, D.C., law firm Wilkie, Farr &
Gallagher, serves as CTIA's principal regulatory advisor and he is nothing if not
modest about his key role in wireless. He was the lead antitrust lawyer at the
Department of Justice back in the '70s in the arbitration over AT&T's antitrust
case, which led to the settlement that finally broke the company up in the 1980s,
and subsequently, the moves that created the Bell companies and the first
cellular markets and competitors.

"Wireless and mobile wireless are among the greatest successes along with cable
TV that I've seen professionally," he says. The long distance market, which AT&T
tried to capture when it was broken up, has shown itself to have none of the
growth potential that wireless has had, he says. "Now we have a highly
competitive industry. It's not heavily regulated and shouldn't be."

Verveer also is politically connected in Washington-his wife Melanne Verveer
served as former First Lady Hilary Clinton's chief of staff for a number of years.
He also served as the chief of the FCC's common carrier bureau and has served
as chair of the Public Safety Wireless Advisory Committee.

That experience yields a lot of wisdom on a number of issues, from regulation to
economics. With that in mind, Verveer says the wireless industry is due for a
shakeup. "There may be too many producers" offering wireless service now, he
says. "We'll get better performance with fewer players."

He also expects battles between wireline and wireless carriers to intensify as
wireline succumbs to more and more losses to wireless services. Issues such as
bill and keep, network interconnection, universal service and others will play out
in the next few years as regulators come to grips with the uneven playing field
the wireline world presents to wireless carriers.

--
http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA298967&spacedesc=Departments&stt=001

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