LAS VEGAS -- Though it’s unknown who will next lead the Federal Communications Commission for a new president, some of the major issues facing the next Chairman are already apparent, according to panelists at the Stifel Nicolaus conference at NXTcomm08.

Network neutrality is sure to face the next FCC, and although presidential candidate Barack Obama has voiced support for the notion of net neutrality, he hasn’t defined exactly what he means.

“There’s a lot of room for discussion there, so I’m not in despair,” said Tom Tauke, executive vice president of Verizon.

The chief question the FCC is likely to face in this regard is how to distinguish discrimination from reasonable network management, said Blair Levin, managing director of Stifel Nicolaus. Its first action is likely to be some form of disclosure mandate, to ensure that carriers are transparent enough to determine whether the are being unfairly discriminative, whatever that means.

It’s also likely that, when net neutrality disputes arise thereafter, FCC regulations will saddle carriers with the burden of proving their own innocence. “Although a negative for the network folks, that’s not a big deal,” Levin said. “The burden of proof should generally lie with the one who has the most information.”

Among the most immediate issues facing the new administration may be intercarrier compensation. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin surprised many in the industry when, in what is expected to be his last year in office, he vowed to take on intercarrier compensation, an intractable, inflammatory issue that politicians and regulators are motivated to avoid.

“Three weeks ago, I’d have said there’s a 1% chance of major intercarrier compensation reform,” Tauke said. “Now I give it about 30%. It may be this is as good a time as any to get something like this through.”

It could come piecemeal, he said, focusing only on voice-over-IP at first or only on so-called “phantom traffic,” traffic that lacks the information needed to establish the compensation it requires. A new policy in one of those areas “would do away with a lot of the enforcement issues the FCC has now,” Tauke said.

Panelists expect the next administration to look closely at the progress (or lack of it) of Clearwire’s ambitions to become a viable third major broadband competitor. If Clearwire fails, Levin said, it may signal to the new administration that action is needed to promote competition. “It would make it clearer to regulators that you have this cable-telco duopoly,” he said.

Another issue sure to be talked about much more in coming years is anti-trust considerations in bundled telecom offerings. Bundled services could be considered anti-competitive -- and therefore illegal -- in this way: If providers offer a discount on a monopoly service (say voice or video) to customers who subscribe to a competitive product, that discount will be applied to the competitive product to determine whether the practice is anti-competitive.

“This issue of antitrust bundling will get to the Supreme Court in the next presidential administration,” said Matt Cantor, a partner at Constantine and Cannon.