How Washington punishes success for Mobile Communications
By Bartlett D. Cleland
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. The robust fast-moving communications industry which consistently brings better products improved services and a diversity of options to its customers seems to be routinely mugged or assailed by politicians. Examining the actions of the federal government one might conclude that it sees mobile communications as a societal evil.
A recent example is the Pre-Paid Mobile Device Identification Act introduced by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
This legislation calls for federal regulation of the prepaid wireless device and service market by requiring all purchases be registered and the purchaser provide personal identifying information to the merchant which is to be collected into a vast database.
The trade for this incursion into freedom? Only the vague promise to paraphrase the sponsors of maybe stopping criminals from doing bad acts.
Of course some criminals do use prepaid wireless service which led to this wrongheaded conclusion that something must be done to regulate a service enjoyed by 58 million law-abiding Americans and a handful of criminals.
Following San Franciscos lead Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) indicated in July that he will introduce legislation to require mobile devices to bear health-related warning labels despite the lack of evidence of health harms and ignoring the fact that government restrictions are already in place.
The American Cancer Society World Health Organization the Food & Drug Administration the FCC OSHA EPA and the
International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection all agree: a survey of the recent scientific literature shows there is no clear evidence of any link between mobile devices and health problems.
The FCC also seems hesitant to miss out on the regulatory feast. Even while the FCC was conducting private negotiations amongst stakeholders to seek an agreement on how to regulate the Internet some private parties were meeting alone.
Google and Verizon historically parties on opposite sides of this debate announced they reached an agreement which importantly excluded wireless from the regulatory framework. The FCC called off its talks and immediately made clear that all options for regulations were on the table including heavy regulations for the mobile industry.
Since Congresss efforts to stimulate the economy has cost untold billions of dollars and utterly failed to create jobs one might conclude that these wholesale attacks on an aggressively growing part of the economy are the real societal evil.
Bartlett D. Cleland is director of Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) Center for Technology Freedom.
