Martin eyes changes to open access; VZW's lobbying may indicate desire for C-Block spectrum.

Byline: JEFFREY SILVA

Democrats warned FCC Chairman Kevin Martin not to cripple the open-access stipulation on the 700 MHz spectrum up for auction early next year, following the agency chief's failed attempts to revise the rule through a procedural maneuver shortly after Verizon Wireless lobbied on the issue. Martin's attempts to revise open access also preceded the agency's consideration of regulatory challenges to the ruling.

"Chairman Markey would be concerned with any ruling that weakened or diluted the effectiveness of the open-access rule,'' said an aide to House telecom subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey (D-Mass.).

Martin, according to sources, tried to revise 700 MHz open-access regulatory language but ditched the idea after meeting resistance from at least two other commissioners. Sources said Martin then turned to a different policymaking vehicle-a declaratory ruling-to modify the auction's open-access guidelines in a way that responds to concerns raised by Verizon Wireless executives at a Sept. 17 meeting with Martin, the chairman's staff and Fred Campbell, chief of the Federal Communications Commission's wireless bureau.

"If the effort here is to eviscerate what we managed to get into the 700 MHz [decision] with regard to Carterfone ... I would look upon that with a lot of concern,'' said Michael Copps, one of the two Democrats on the Republican-controlled FCC. "People fought long and hard for these things.''

Skype Ltd., Google Inc., consumer advocates, special-interest groups and others want the 1968 landmark Carterfone decision-which forbid the blocking of devices from connecting to the wireline telephone network-applied to the wireless industry. The FCC 700 MHz ruling applied that principle to both devices and applications on a third of the spectrum-the C block-up for auction in mid-January. However, there appears to be some confusion about precisely how the open-access condition would play out as a practical matter.

"The question of how this issue is resolved will impact the value of the C-block [open-access] condition,'' said Harold Feld, senior VP of the Media Access Project.