WASHINGTON — The head of the Federal Communications Commission has canceled a controversial Election Day vote on a proposed overhaul of telecommunications regulations that many consumer advocates feared would lead to higher phone bills.
Abandoning the vote is a setback for FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, one of three Republicans on the five-member commission, who had hoped to pass his proposal before power changes hands in Washington. Martin pulled the item from the agenda for today’s FCC meeting amid mounting opposition from many corners of the telecommunications industry, consumer groups, Congress — and even his fellow FCC commissioners.
Martin had been seeking to reform the multibillion-dollar “intercarrier compensation” system, the byzantine menu of charges that telecom carriers pay to access one another’s networks and connect calls. Martin wanted to move toward uniform, lower rates.
His plan also included major changes to the $7 billion Universal Service Fund, the federal program that subsidizes telecom service in rural and poor communities through a surcharge on long-distance bills. Among other things, Martin would have required carriers to use Universal Service money to invest in broadband networks in parts of the country that lack high-speed Internet connections.
The proposed overhaul of telecom access fees had the support of the biggest phone companies, including Verizon and AT&T, which argue that the existing rules are outdated. In a statement Monday, AT&T said that without changing the system, “our regulatory regime will remain broken and stuck with a 20th-century economic model designed for the black rotary phone.”
Martin’s four fellow FCC commissioners objected to addressing his proposal before seeking public comments. In a joint statement Monday, the four commissioners — Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein and Republicans Robert McDowell and Deborah Tate — said Martin could have waited for public comment and still scheduled a vote on his plan at the FCC’s Dec. 18 meeting.
They said public review was especially important “in light of the difficult economic circumstances currently facing our nation.”
Now, Martin said, he does not expect to be able to move forward with his plan this year.
The FCC is still set to vote today on whether to open up unused portions of the television airwaves known as “white spaces” to deliver wireless broadband service.
