Changing of the guard

New FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell vowed last week to reorganize the regulatory agency and to accelerate the review of mergers—moves likely to be popular with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill.

“I believe it is time to restructure the FCC,” said Powell during an hour-long press conference at the FCC's Washington headquarters. President George W. Bush tapped fellow Republican Powell last month to become the nation's chief telecommunications regulator.

Powell did not provide details of a reorganization plan but said it would replace the current “balkanized” regulatory structure with one that reflects the telecom industry's convergence.

The current FCC has separate bureaus for common-carrier, cable, wireless, mass-media and international issues. But that structure no longer works because the latest telecom services use overlapping technologies, Powell said.

For instance, take cable-based phone service and high-speed Internet access, the competitive route chosen by AT&T. The FCC doesn't know how to regulate these services because it doesn't know whether to classify them as telecom services, cable services, information services or something else. Courts have issued conflicting opinions.

FCC “reform,” a priority of Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, isn't likely to happen soon.

“Restructuring is disruptive and has to be the product of a systematic review,” Powell said. “I have many, many variables to deal with,” he added—including Congress, federal personnel administrators and labor unions.

Powell also said he would try to speed the FCC's review of mergers, some of which have taken a year or more. “I'm definitely in favor of them being faster,” although specific time limits aren't necessary, the chairman said.

Powell spent as much time telling reporters what the FCC won't do as what it will. In articulating his free-market approach toward regulation, Powell said he would act as an implementer rather than an initiator.

‘I'm not a fan of industrial policy. The priorities will flow from operations… and what's brought to us.’
—Michael K. Powell, FCC

“I'm not a fan of industrial policy,” Powell said. “The priorities will flow from operations… and what's brought to us.” For example, there's no need to delve into the “digital divide” debate about equalizing access to the Internet and other new technologies, he said.

But Powell hedged when asked whether the FCC would impose an open access requirement on cable providers, saying, “It's one of the hardest questions.” He was likewise mum on whether he'd support Tauzin's call to exempt RBOCs from legal requirements before they can sell long-distance data services, a move fiercely opposed by competitive carriers.