First Big Deadlines Loom as FCC Prep for WRC-19 Gets Started
The next World Radiocommunication Conference doesn’t happen until 2019, yet major deadlines loom, CTIA General Counsel Tom Power said Tuesday at the first meeting of the FCC WRC Advisory Committee (WAC). The first big deadline is the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL) meeting starting in late November, said Power, WAC chairman. “The U.S will be presenting our preliminary views on the items for the WRC agenda,” he said. “Obviously, it means we, and the working groups, all have a lot of work to do between now and then.”
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“It’s hard to believe that we are now starting to prepare for another conference,” said Mindel De La Torre, chief of the FCC International Bureau, opening the session.
The FCC didn’t get global agreement on its approach to the UHF band during WRC-15 last year, despite lobbying from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and other U.S. officials (see 1511050041). Top issues from the U.S. perspective in 2019 are expected to include mobile broadband in bands above 6 GHz, global aeronautical distress and safety services and the 5 GHz band (see 1602180056).
Industry observers said Tuesday Power as chairman was probably a good choice by Wheeler. Power was an Obama White House and NTIA official and a senior aide to former FCC Chairman William Kennard. The vice chairman is Christopher Murphy, associate general counsel-regulatory affairs at ViaSat.
No one should be concerned that a carrier advocate is chairing WAC, said Fred Campbell, director of Tech Knowledge. “The most important factor in preparing for a WRC is knowledge and experience,” Campbell told us. “The breadth and diversity of international interests addressed at a WRC tend to mitigate concerns about the potential for someone to pursue a partisan agenda.”
Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge, didn’t have particular concerns about WAC leadership. “We looked at getting involved in WRC prep,” Feld told us. “The FCC and many in the private sector are interested in seeing more public interest participation. The problem is really a resource issue. It is a huge commitment to get involved in WRC prep and planning.” It would be helpful to have public interest groups more involved, he conceded. “But no one has figured out how to make that happen,” he said. “Hardly anyone wants to fund public interest participation in spectrum policy. Funding for three years of planning for a meeting in Geneva is just about out of the question.”
Power “has worked for many years in the administration and is highly respected,” said Roger Entner, analyst at Recon Analytics. “It's not a bad thing to be close to the carriers as they are the ones who have to pay for the spectrum and work with it on a daily basis.” There are no "experienced virgins when it comes to spectrum and how it is used,” he said. “Wheeler trusts Power … because of their long relationship and Power’s experience in government as well as his current role with the carriers,” said Richard Bennett, free-market blogger and network architect. “It’s a sound choice that shouldn’t raise the hackles of the public interest lobby.”
De La Torre said that for the first time in many WRCs, Alex Roytblat is no longer WRC director at the agency. Roytblat recently took a job at the Wi-Fi Alliance (see 1607080019). Roytblat, who was at the meeting, knows radio regulation better than anyone and is a “fierce, fierce negotiator,” she said. She said FCC staffer Dante Ibarra is the new WRC director for 2019 and knows the agenda items well. A second FCC staffer, Donna Christianson, will be working closely with Ibarra, De La Torre said.
The next WRC will be busy, De La Torre said. “I think we have over 35 items,” she said. “It says that we have 19, but we all know that that’s just a fake way of doing the measurements.”
The WAC will do most of its work in four informal working groups. Those IWGs are: IWG-1, Maritime, Aeronautical and Radar Services; IWG-2, Terrestrial Services; IWG-3 Space Services; and IWG-4, Regulatory Issues, said an FCC document. Joseph Cramer of Boeing will chair IWG-1 with Kathryn Martin, representing OneWeb, to be vice chairwoman. IWG-2 is chaired by Jayne Stancavage, Intel, with Patricia Paoletta, Harris Wiltshire, vice chairwoman. IWG-3 chairman is Jack Wengryniuk, AT&T Entertainment Group, and vice chair is Giselle Creeser, Inmarsat. IWG-4 will be chaired by Jennifer Manner, EchoStar, with Steve Baruch, New Wave Spectrum Partners, as vice chairman.