A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Wireless Forum . . .

Apropos of almost nothing, I always liked that old joke that "I was on my way to a fight and a hockey game broke out."  After watching the FCC open meeting this morning, it struck me that as the FCC launches three Notices of Inquiry ("NOIs") into the "wireless [smart phone] universe"--investment and innovation [mainly spectrum management, availability, and interference issues], the Commission's annual wireless competition report to Congress, and consumer benefits [information available to consumers in choosing services]--competition might just break out between government agencies with overlapping jurisdiction.  It is worth noting that at today's Commission meeting, with respect to the Innovation and Investment NOI, and the Competition Report NOI, both Commissioners McDowell and Baker--while supporting the effort to obtain more knowledge about the broader wireless market--were skeptical of the Commission's jurisdiction in some areas of the NOIs.  They might be onto something; especially when looking at an expansive view of the entire industry that is responsible for bringing a smart phone, and its functionalities, to market.

A cynic (but not me), might even say that the Commission appears to be engaging in a little "competition" vis-à-vis other government competition enforcement agencies (like the Federal Trade Commission or the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice), and attempting to expand its jurisdiction into the wireless applications market.  Some might say this "focus" is significantly, but not entirely, rooted in on one recent episode involving some of the country's largest companies in their respective markets, whatever those markets are and however they are defined.  But, as noted, the FCC is not the only agency--or even the traditionally primary agency--likely to take action against anticompetitive practices in the communications industries; the DoJ and the FTC can also take action, and have done so in the past. 

Here's something else: in Chairman Genachowski's statement on the NOI regarding an expanded Wireless Competition Report, he says "[the] transition [from mobile voice to mobile Internet] promises to increase the pace of innovation and investment, but only if we have an open and competitive marketplace that gives every great idea a chance to make its way to consumers so that the best products or services win."  This statement itself contains nothing to quarrel with, as this is the way competitive markets do work . . . eventually, anyway.  Indeed, most companies get product/service ideas, inputs, and other components from a variety of wholesale sources and independent inventors/industrial designers.  Whether the best ideas even get to market, much less win, is a riskier proposition because we can only really know in hindsight what those ideas are.

It might be persnickety, but the slight concern with this statement, is that in a competitive market, the competitors get to decide which ideas are "great", even if they are dead wrong on ones they back and the ones they fail to support.  These great blunders by the "best and brightest" have become proverbs in the corporate world. 

Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center ("PARC") is perhaps most known for letting great ideas walk out the door.  These ideas, and the employees that left to pursue them, produced many successful companies, including 3Com, Adobe, and Apple.  Hopefully, the Commission is not considering substituting its bad judgment for the bad judgment of the market participants.  Bad judgments by companies breed opportunity for rivals and third parties, and punish bad managers, and the shareholders that employ them.  This is good, and it is hard to see how inserting the regulator's bad judgment for that of a market participant--in a market that all agree is competitive--will lead to any consumer benefits.

Moreover, given the Commission's limited discretionary resources right now (the National Broadband Plan is due to Congress in six months), does it make sense to focus on a market that is, by all-Commissioner's account and the Commission's own data, a success story?  Or are there areas within the Commission's jurisdiction that might offer a little more bang for the buck?