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Kevin Martin, Quiet Consensus Builder
by Drew Clark
Last week's announcement that former FCC Chairman Michael Powell has become a senior adviser to a private equity firm with a $9 billion stake in media and telecommunications companies revived the controversy that followed him everywhere as chairman. Public-interest critics like Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, slammed Powell's "gold revolving door," while defenders like telecom expert Robert Cannon countered that such charges are "little more than unsubstantiated rhetoric."
Similar conflict has not plagued Powell's replacement as chairman, Kevin Martin, who has quietly won unanimous and speedy action on key issues since March. Martin has released two significant orders on "enhanced 911" telecom service, or E911, and on deregulation of high-speed Internet service offered over digital subscriber lines (DSL) by telecom companies.
"Chairman Martin has already proven he can lead and build consensus on difficult issues," said Kyle McSlarrow, CEO of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. "He is exactly right to pinpoint broadband deployment as his highest priority, and to recognize how important it is to link investment and innovation."
Walter McCormick, CEO of the U.S. Telecom Association, added that Martin "has put together impressive coalitions on important issues like E911 and the regulatory classification for DSL. Kevin has proven himself as a leader at the commission and a strong advocate to achieve the Bush administration's goal of universal broadband by 2007."
The politically toxic issue of media ownership still remains before Martin, but he also has demonstrated a deft political touch on that subject. So far, he has kept at bay the liberal critics that loved to hate Powell.
Martin's Priorities: Broadband And Security
In the one public speech that Martin has given since becoming chairman -- on July 26 to the National Association of Regional Utility Commissioners (NARUC) in Austin, Texas -- he emphasized promoting broadband and fixing lingering telecom crises. He has sounded the same emphasis on broadband in interviews and in a July 7 column for The Wall Street Journal.
Martin has spoken equally emphatically about homeland security, and his actions on both E911 and DSL deregulation evince a determination to address the concerns of public safety -- which may conflict with those of a broadband-promoting technology industry.
Martin began the agency's May meeting with an unusual presentation by three safety officials and three families who had been Vonage customers and were unable to reach emergency dispatchers when they dialed 911 on their Internet-connected telephones. The E911 order issued that month made no distinction between cable companies that provide voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) to fixed addresses and those, like Vonage, that let users move their Internet phone service.
"At bottom, it is important that consumers have the ability to pick up a phone and connect to their emergency 911 operator," Martin said in a subsequent interview. "I think it was important for us to act quickly on these issues, as evidenced by the witnesses and the testimony."
The order led to some initial complaints by the technology community. It "could put more Americans in harms way by denying consumers access to useful VoIP services," said Jeff Pulver, CEO of Pulver.com. His company remains exempt from the order because it does not connect its VoIP service to traditional phone lines.
For now, the FCC order does not require VoIP providers to automatically identify the locations of remote callers. Yet some are concerned that could be the agency's next step.
"We are very concerned that the commission is considering some additional mandates on technology on any device that can support VoIP, including a laptop or a desktop computer," said John Morris, staff counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology. "We caution the FCC to not go too far in imposing technology mandates on computers and Internet services, in an effort to have a perfect 911 emergency system."
Toward A Competitive Broadband Market
Martin scored another coup Aug. 5 when he persuaded the agency's two Democratic commissioners to join him and Republican Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy in deregulating DSL broadband. That decision came less than six weeks after the Supreme Court decided, in National Cable and Telecommunications Association v. Brand X Internet Service, to deregulate broadband offered via cable modems.
Martin immediately sought to guarantee equal treatment for DSL. "As I have said on numerous occasions, leveling the playing field between these providers has been one of my highest priorities," he said Aug. 5 of competition between the cable and telecom sectors.
The commission's two Democrats could have balked. One of them, Michael Copps, had dissented in 2002 when the FCC said cable modems should be unregulated. Parity for the Bell telecom firms had been delayed while the Brand X case was litigated. But Copps and Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein concurred this time because of three compromises.
Under the FCC action, the Bells must design their Internet systems to make them wiretap-friendly, something all commissioners wanted. For at least nine months, Bell companies must continue to pay fees into the universal service fund, which aims to guarantee all Americans access to communications services.
Finally, the agency issued a statement favoring "network neutrality," or the notion that neither cable nor telecom companies should be allowed to block consumers from downloading legal programs and services. Public-interest groups and some tech companies wanted the FCC to go further than its nonbinding statement on such neutrality, and they will take their case to Congress.
The Storm Cloud Of Media Ownership?
Observers believe that the decisions on E911 and DSL have put Martin in a good spot. "Both are substantial regulatory decisions done in a prompt fashion and unanimously," said Bryan Tramont, a former chief of staff to Powell and an attorney at the telecom law firm Wilkinson Barker. "The speed with which he moved on DSL after Brand X in particular was striking."
"I think you have got to give him an A-plus for restoring a strong sense of collegiality to the institution and proving that he is skillful at bringing the commissioners together," said attorney Justin Lilley, who represents a range of telecom clients.
"The most important component of being an effective chairman is having the political instinct to know what the highest priority [is], and I think he is off to a great start," said Jeff Connaughton, a director at Quinn Gillespie, which represents Bell companies.
Now Martin must turn to the potentially harder question of how to change the limits on media ownership. Observers said Martin wants to act on the matter by November at the latest but is stymied until the Bush administration names new FCC picks.
Lacking a third vote for proposed rules for more limited deregulation of media companies, he pulled the item from July's agenda. In the words of media critic Chester: "Kevin Martin is not exactly Michael Powell. He is making some savvy political decisions."
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