Reason: You've done more than any other chairman to increase the number of megahertz devoted to unlicensed spectrum. Why?
Powell: The commission made an interesting error many years ago and issued the unlicensed band because they thought the spectrum was junk. We didn't invent WiFi [wireless fidelity] or anything. The only thing I think we should be credited for is that we started to observe that very positive things were happening in that space, not just baby monitors and microwave ovens. Suddenly people were bringing very interesting products to consumers at very low cost.
We jumped on that and said this is something the government should reinforce rather than try to stamp out. Because the history of the FCC is, when something happens that it doesn't understand, kill it. We tried to kill cable. We tried to kill long-distance. When [MCI founder] Bill McGowan starting stringing out microwave towers that threatened AT&T, the FCC tried to stop him. The FCC tried to kill cable because it was going to threaten broadcasting. I don't want to make those mistakes. The philosophy of my commission is when we see something that's disruptive but powerful, stop talking about killing it. Talk about empowering it.
So we jumped on WiFi and said, "Let's see how far this can go." It's gone way farther than I would have imagined. I don't think I could do unlicensed for all the spectrum in the United States and not melt down the universe, but can we pick selective bands under certain parameters and do that? Yeah. And it's teaching us a lot about how much more we might be able to do with it.
Reason: What about unlicensed broadcasting? Why not let pirate stations operate if they're not interfering with other stations nearby?
Powell: You just put in an enormous caveat: if they don't interfere. The way we manage interference is through licensing. I could say, "Why don't we just let everybody buy a car and get on the road and as long as they don't run into anybody, it's OK?" Well, because somebody who buys the car might be up to something that they shouldn't be. Or maybe there's no way to have a record-keeping function so that when the car wrecks I know who did the wrecking. You won't be very happy if the interference is with the LAX tower as a plane's landing and we find out--which has happened--that a pirate radio station was responsible for that and we didn't even know who they were. Licenses are a way of knowing in advance who's authorized to operate and that they have been given clear understanding about what the operating parameters are and that they're legally obligated to follow them.
Reason: In a world where there is competition between cable and wireless and telephone for video and voice and data, what is the role of the FCC? Couldn't we just eliminate it, shut its doors, hire a spectrum court, and pass antitrust enforcement over to Justice?
Powell: If you want to. So let's engage in a hypothetical about putting yourself out of business. The communications system, let's be blunt, is littered with social and political policies that have been embraced by the country and codified by the Congress, and it's created an institution to administer them. Don't ask me to defend it. I'm administrating it. The universal service program is a commitment by the United States to provide ubiquitous and affordable phone service. You can let the market do it and you can pay $300 a month for phone service in Montana.
Reason: You think that's what you'd pay? You can get cellular service for $40 a month.
Powell: Yes. We have places in the United States where the cost of a basic land line would be $200 to $300.
You said things in your statement that are important, but don't trivialize them and say, just set up a court for spectrum. We are that court. You can put it in something else you want to call a court, but that's who we are, and we've been doing it for 70-something years and we're probably the best in the world at it.
Universal service is not an economic policy; it's a social policy. Public interest obligations on broadcasters, as much as you may want to disagree with them and as much I might want to disagree--they're just social and political policy.
Reason: But clearly you are doing more than just implementing the will of Congress and being a spectrum court. You are implementing industrial policies like digital television, which will require all Americans to swap out televisions receiving broadcasts for newer models. [Once that's completed, every broadcast station will give back the second television channel it was loaned for free in 1997, and cease analog broadcasting.] When did you decide this was worthy of embracing and pushing?
Powell: When I decided that Congress had made a legal judgment that that's what they wanted to do and asked this agency to make it happen. When I realized that this country was wasting way too much spectrum in broadcasting, and it needed to get it back, and the only way to get it back is to get the transition over. When I realized that if somebody doesn't help drive this transition forward, hundreds of megahertz of spectrum that could be deployed for other creative uses or for public safety or for homeland security were laying unused. I am not free to be nothing but an academic about the way I think about the world. I am duty-bound to try to administer the policies that are in place and make them work, no matter what my personal preferences are.
I didn't write the industrial policy of DTV, and I've been on record criticizing why we did it in the first place. But it's done. Sitting around whining about it at conferences is not the same as getting it done.
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