Therefore, the commission must remove any regulatory disincentives that exist with regard to deploying advanced telecommunications capability. The FCC needs to move to release regulatory burdens on those carriers that are being burdened by them, rather than bring new competitors under varying regulatory schemes that may be outdated. TIA suggested that the commission pursue the implementation of 706 in two steps. TIA believes that once the FCC makes a determination regarding the level of advanced telecommunications deployment, more narrowly crafted solutions may emerge. Increasingly, the commission speaks of using the Internet as a model of how advanced telecommunications capability and service offerings can develop.
Prophylactic regulation is unlikely to foster Internet-like growth of such technologies.
The FCC often speaks of its oversight of the communications industry evolving from hands-on regulation to enforcement in instances where there is evidence of anticompetitive behavior. The result would be that the antitrust laws become increasingly important. The commission can and should use this Section 706 proceeding as a way of moving substantially toward that goal by seeking ways to reduce the heavy-handed regulation that appears to be handicapping the industry. To the extent that a global wireless standard can accomplish low-cost universal interoperability of wireless communications devices, I think that all consumers will benefit. What we should work to avoid is stranding technologies that U.S. consumers and service providers already own in the process of creating a global wireless standard.