A series of important votes will take place Tuesday. In polling places around the country, millions of Americans will choose the next president of the United States. And in Room TWC-305, just five Federal Communications Commission members will gather to decide some of telecommunication’s most contentious issues.
Late Monday, however, the agenda grew a little shorter when FCC Chairman Kevin Martin canceled a vote on two hotly contested proposals. One was designed to restructure the fees that phone companies pay each other to handle phone traffic, while the other would have made changes in the Universal Service Charge (USC), which applies to long-distance calls and subsidizes phone service in low-revenue areas of the country.
Canceling those votes is a political setback for Martin, a Republican appointed chairman by President George W. Bush in 2005. If Senator Barack Obama wins Tuesday’s presidential election, the FCC will be urged to hold off on any significant policy moves until a new chairman is appointed.
Martin’s proposals generated opposition both inside the commission and in Congress. In a relatively rare show of unanimity, the other four commissioners (two Republicans and two Democrats) told Martin they wanted more time to study the effects. They also suggested the proposals may require public comments.
In addition, nearly 20 percent of Congress wrote to Martin asking him to delay the vote to give the public a chance to weigh in. Congressmen from rural areas are particularly concerned about the impact of changes to the USC.
Most rural carriers believe Martin’s proposal to change the USC to a flat rate would benefit larger telecommunications companies but reduce one of their major revenue streams.
Canceling the phone-rate vote will give the FCC more time to debate and perhaps resolve another enormously significant issue: A request by some high-tech companies that…