FCC Under Fire For Planning Election Day Meeting
From CongressDaily's TechCentral:
Rank-and-file voters won't be the only ones casting their ballots Tuesday: There's also a series of votes scheduled at the FCC, albeit FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is facing mounting blowback from Capitol Hill, state officials and numerous lobbying interests for calling an Election Day commission meeting on major regulatory items without allowing time for public comment. Critics accuse Martin of rushing to act before the next president replaces him as chairman and while FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, who was not reconfirmed by Congress, is still at the agency.
There are a number of controversial items at least tentatively on the agenda -- including a restructuring of the rules governing intercarrier compensation, an overhaul of the universal service fund that subsidizes telecom service in rural and low-income areas, and a proposal to allow such high-tech giants as Google, Intel and Microsoft to tap unused broadcast spectrum (so-called white space) for a new wave of mobile wireless broadband applications. Also on Tuesday's packed schedule: votes on Verizon's planned merger with Alltel -- thereby creating the nation's largest wireless phone company -- as well as Sprint's proposed wireless partnership with the high-speed Internet provider Clearwire Corp.
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