Shouldn't FCC Want to Develop Some
Staff With ITU Work Experience?

The FCC's International Bureau was created under Chairman Hundt to coordinate all the Commission's international activities in the national interest. It has done so in many areas, but those of who have observed it closely also know how "turf conscious/protective" it is.

A recent publicly available staff paper from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, "Framework for an Expanded Cadre of Nuclear Regulatory Commission Employees with International Experience", outlines the advantages in terms of international influence and furthering international goals of having some staff members who have worked at your agency's international counterpart. In the case of FCC this is ITU -- while for NRC it is IAEA . (Lest you say that NRC doesn't have the same bifurcated responsibility as the FCC/NTIA split, NRC has plenty of turf battles with DOE, a cabinet level Executive Branch agency.) The paper

"provides a framework for identifying current and future activities that can provide staff with focused opportunities to participate in international activities in the interest of expanding the cadre of NRC employees with international experience. Specific ideas that are currently being developed to assist managers and staff in identifying and supporting activities that align with the Commission’s commitment to be involved in relevant international activities are also outlined."

For those readers not familiar with federal civil service laws and regulations, federal employees may be detailed to international organizations such as ITU and IAEA for several years as employees of the international organization and at no cost to the US agency. Indeed, one can even keep all your retirement credit if you want to by paying fees. The only requirement of the employing agency is to reemploy or make a serious attempt to reemploy the employee when he/she returns.

In the past the FCC personnel bureaucrats cringed at this thought and tried to deny even the existence of this option. Certainly there was never any circulation within the FCC staff of ITU staff vacancies. (FCC staffers - here's the link to see what the vacancies are. Circulate it among your friends.)

So a constructive suggestion for FCC IB and HR management: Look at the NRC document and decide what type of policy is best for FCC and the country. Then tell the staff what you decided. I would be surprised if the status quo of hiding the existence of vacancies at the ITU and the facilitation that federal civil service laws and regulations give to such details.

8th Floor readers: Ask IB and OMD where they stand on this and how many FCC employees have worked at ITU in recent years and under what circumstances. Consider asking for an FCC analog to the NRC paper.

Renee Roland Crittendon Joins the WAM

FCC Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein announced July 17th that Renee Roland Crittendon will be joining his staff as Legal Advisor for Spectrum and International Issues. Ms. Crittendon has begun to transition into the office and will assume her new responsibilities on a permanent basis.

“I’m very pleased to have Renee join us with her sound judgment and rich background in telecom and spectrum policy. I’m grateful that she already has been able to help our office out during this transition time, and I look forward to making Renee a permanent member of my staff.”

Ms. Crittendon has worked at the Commission since 2001 and most recently serves as Deputy Bureau Chief in the Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB). Prior to that, she was Chief of the WCB’s Competition Policy Division where she managed proceedings on various matters, including local competition, broadband and IP-enabled services. Ms. Crittendon also served as Associate Division Chief of the Mobility Division of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. Prior to joining the Commission, Ms. Crittendon served as Deputy Chief Counsel –
Telecommunications for Prism Communication Services, Inc., and was an associate with Piper & Marbury(now DLA Piper) and Leventhal Senter & Lerman, PLLC. Ms. Crittendon received her J.D. from the George Washington University and her B.A. in Economics from Georgetown
University. She is a trustee of Miss Porter's School, Farmington, CT.

With this change, the apparent e-mail addresses of the WAM members are now: Erika.Olsen@fcc.gov, Aaron.Goldberger@fcc.gov, Angela.Giancarlo@fcc.gov, John.Branscome@fcc.gov,Renee.Crittendon@fcc.gov

Harold Feld's tribute to Barry Ohlson, who is being replaced by Ms. Crittendon.

Aux Armes, Netoyens!:

Japanese Ministry Expected

to Propose Wi-Fi Tax

The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest (and right wing) newspaper reported yesterday that the Japanese communication regulatory agency, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, will soon propose taxes on unlicensed systems in Japan. Will customs inspectors at Narita Airport check your laptop for a Wi-Fi card or Centrino chip and then charge you an entry fee? Stay tuned!

2 Ministries Split Over Radio Wave Policy

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry intends to publicly voice its

opposition to a plan by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry

to levy fees on a wider range of businesses for their use of radio waves,

according to sources.

The communications ministry plans a revision of the Radio Law to shift to

a new system under which fees will be levied on the expressway-based

Electronic Toll Collection system (ETC), among other information

technology devices. It is thought the new system may push up the price of

certain products and services. METI therefore contends that the new system

would have a negative impact of the spread of IT services.

METI is set to express its opinion via the communications ministry's

"public comment" opinion box early this week. It is highly unusual for a

government body to publicly oppose a policy created by a separate

government department, the sources said.

The policy to widen the range of bodies from which fees are collected from

fiscal 2008 was proposed in a draft report hammered out at the end of June

by an advisory panel to the communications ministry.

The report concluded it was necessary to consider imposing fees on

operators of certain radio wave services--such as ETC systems, wireless

local area networks and personal handyphone systems--who are not required

to obtain government permission to operate their services.

This is because such IT devices transmit relatively weak radio waves and

are not thought to have much impact on broadcast and cell phone services.

The operators of these services are thus exempted from paying to use their

radio waves. It also is considered technically difficult to levy fees on

these devices.

In the draft proposal, the panel proposed tackling supposed inequalities

in the burdens shared by TV stations and cell phone service

operators--with the latter thought to bear most of the responsibility-- in

connection with an envisaged shift to terrestrial digital broadcasting.

The communications ministry wants to use this opportunity to mitigate this

perceived sense of unfairness by widening its collection-fee net, the

sources said.

Fees collected by the ministry from broadcast stations and cell phone

service companies for the use of radio waves are expected to total 65.4

billion yen in fiscal 2007. This figure far exceeds that of the United

States at 34.8 billion yen, and that of Britain at 3.04 billion yen, both

of which have similar fee-collection systems.

The panel also suggested making it possible to alter fees by merely

revising ordinances, rather than revising the current law.

But METI officials have voiced opposition. "If fee changes are only

possible with Cabinet approval, the Internal Affairs and Communications

Ministry would have a free hand on raising charges. This goes against a

state policy to boost the economy via information technology," a METI

official said.