Subject: [NEXTEL-1] CTIA Needs to Take a Stand

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 06 Apr 2004 04:06:56 -0400

CTIA Needs to Take a Stand
April 5, 2004

 Pro football hall of famer Steve Largent knows something about game
plans. In his unofficial
coming-out party as the new head of the Cellular Telecommunications &
Internet Association last week, Largent showed he can cover the wireless
field, but his route may be a bit too safe. At a time when the domestic
wireless industry is lagging behind most of the developed world in the
breadth and depth of its offerings, CTIA's focus should be squarely on
standards, regulations and reinvestment. The lobbying organization's
show in Atlanta was the prime opportunity to sound out carriers and
government officials to determine their commitment to the kinds of
robust and affordable services U.S. enterprises want and South Korea's
enterprises, for example, already have.

However, CTIA's version of the prevent defense was on display early on,
as Largent went easy on his guests during the show's Q&A sessions.
Perhaps the most telling omission was the absence of pointed questioning
of FCC Chairman Michael Powell. While uncertainty about regulations and
radio-frequency interference breed hesitancy on the part of the
carriers, Powell was left to chitchat about the desires of teen cell
phone users.

Largent's time would have been better spent urging the FCC chief to
abandon his support of the proposed 1.9GHz spectrum giveaway to Nextel,
which is intended only to eliminate the interference with public safety
communications that Nextel created.
Largent, a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma, got the CTIA gig
because of his conservative connections, so his minimalist regulatory
pedigree isn't in question. What is curious is his decision not to make
Powell explain to the CTIA constituency where the FCC stands on things
like E911 compliance, designation of wireless traffic as traditional
telephony, tax status and the still-undefined realm of broadband
regulation. The regulatory freedom that marked the early stages of
wireless is often given credit for the industry's rapid growth and
development. That freedom is now threatened by increasing calls from
states to tax the services as well as by the blurring lines between IT
and telecom in areas such as voice over IP.
Clearly, the buzz is back in wireless, as the huge crowds in Atlanta
attested, but despite double-digit adoption increases reported by the
carriers, Largent got few assurances from the carriers that the added
revenues are being reinvested in wireless infrastructure, a key element
to the success of wireless data services, as the telcos of South Korea
and Japan well know. The hesitancy to address reinvestment on the part
of the carriers is due partly to the regulatory uncertainty. But it is
also a result of the United States' patchwork of wireless standards.

Enterprise users care more about what the service does than how it is
done.  What we expect from Largent and his advocacy organization is more
focus on the latter. As we've seen so far, you can't get one without the
other.

 eWEEK is interested in your views. Send your comments to
[email-masked].

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1561919,00.asp

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