FCC Chairman Kevin Martin yesterday laid out his agency's plan to tackle the high early termination fees (ETFs) subscribers face when they cancel their service while under contract. Martin's plan is not-so-coincidentally similar to a plan set forth by the wireless industry last month. Martin's plan would require carriers have pro-rated ETFs and give customers 30 days to cancel without penalty (both being things they either already do or have announced plans to do).

"Faced with the prospect of multiple state policies on this issue, Verizon believes that appropriate federal action to establish a national policy is preferable." -Verizon

By pushing wimpy federal regulation that requires carriers to do things they're already doing, the FCC's actually just acting as the wireless industry's lap dog. Such wimpy guidelines would pre-empt tougher State laws, nullify looming laws, and derail existing class action lawsuits against the carriers for being misleading about the charges. Most of the companies began pro-rating their ETFs and giving 30-day no-obligation windows only after class action and Attorney General lawsuits surfaced.

The priority for the industry of course is to kill off these lawsuits, only made possible by tough state-level protections. A secondary benefit would be to kill off unfinished Federal regulation like the Cell Phone Consumer Empowerment Act. It's the only reason lobbyists like Verizon's Tom Tauke, who traditionally acts like regulation causes cancer, is in favor of federal regulation on this issue.

In short, you've got the FCC helping wireless carriers erode the very State-level authority that got carriers to change their ETFs in the first place. Of course that's not how Verizon spins it to the public. Verizon is pretending that they changed their ETF system as a good will gesture, not because of the tougher State-level consumer protection laws (like in Minnesota) that demanded it.

A video of the full four hour exchange can be found at the FCC website here. Statements from all the commissioners can be found here.