A Verizon executive told Congress today that he welcomes federal oversight of the wireless industry... so long as it benefits Verizon. Other federal attempts to regulate the business—including "open access" requirements in the upcoming 700MHz auction—were vehemently opposed.

Verizon general counsel Steven Zipperstein told the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Internet that he was a big fan of national regulation, so long as "national regulation" means that the states lose much of their power to regulate the wireless industry. According to Verizon, such state regulation is a byproduct of a time when consumers had few options. Zipperstein says now that 97 percent of Americans live in a county with three wireless service providers, it means it's time to let market forces take over from regulators.

Basic regulations should be handled on the national level so that companies like Verizon and AT&T can roll out services across the country without needing to comply with 50 different sets of rules. Even some national consumer protection rules would be fine with Verizon.

When it comes to other forms of federal regulation, though, Zipperstein took a combative tone. Most of his ire was saved for the idea of "open access," which could force the winner of some 700MHz spectrum to sell it wholesale to any operator who wants to buy access. ("Open access" can also be defined as requiring a retail operator like Verizon to allow customers to attach any safe device to the network, much as the landline phone network operates today.)

Zipperstein will have neither of these options. Those who want open access "had not identified how the wireless market has failed consumers," he said, and then went on to argue that "consumer choice would be a casualty of policies that mandate that all companies do the same thing the same way."

Though others have argued that wireless operators routinely crippled functionality and features that users want in order to protect other services, Zipperstein says that's not the case; in fact, all Verizon is out to do is safeguard network quality and the user experience. He points out that allowing things like placecasting (SlingBox) might be nice for some users, but widespread usage will degrade the network for most others.

Not surprisingly, Chris Murray of Consumers Union (publishers of Consumer Reports) didn't see things the same way. He told Congress that open access was crucial to consumer choice. "Without open access to the full range of wireless services and devices, consumers will continue to face unfair charges for service modification or termination, inability to use innovative applications, devices that have been hobbled to minimize competition, and other troublesome practices currently used by the dominant cell phone and broadband providers."

Stay tuned; this feud is only going to get nastier as the FCC prepares to release rules for the auction sometime this month.