Examining the actions of the federal government, one might conclude that it sees mobile communications as a societal evil. 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.
- A recent example is the “Pre-Paid Mobile Device Identification Act,” introduced by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) . 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 Francisco’s 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 and 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 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 Congress’s 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.