By: Daniel Goldbeck

Monday’s FCC deal on “Bill Shock” was one of those shockingly rare moments in the world of regulations. Stakeholders actually worked together on a difficult issue and found a solution amenable to their varied interests. Members of CTIA, the wireless industry’s trade association, will now implement new procedures that better inform their customers of impending overage and roaming charges. Consumer Unions, FCC, and even the White House laud this deal as a successful approach.

Contrast this agreement, and its subsequent celebration, with the recent controversy over Bank of America’s fee hike. In order to recoup revenue lost due to a Dodd-Frank rule limiting merchant “swipe fees,” Bank of America introduced a new $5 monthly fee on its debit card customers. President Obama derided the move and argued that the fee demonstrated the need for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. His answer to an unintended consequence of regulation is more regulation.

There is a pretty clear reason for the President’s rhetoric. The banking industry is the biggest political piñata out there these days. Just look at the parks surrounding Wall Street. Anger with “the banks” seems to be the closest thing to a consensus that the disparate voices and causes of the Occupy movement can muster.

The President has (wisely) kept his distance from that crowd. However, it is increasingly clear that he looks to tap into its sentiment as 2012 approaches. His rhetoric regarding the debit fee debacle demonstrates an expansive, adversarial regulatory agenda, an agenda that runs counter to the reforms he and Cass Sunstein so often tout.

With the Bill Shock deal, it’s not as though the service providers struck some huge, incontrovertible victory vis-à-vis the regulators. FCC retains the ability to jump back in if they feel the industry is insufficiently implementing the voluntary standards. Considering their recent implementation of net neutrality, it would certainly not be a shocking development to see them throw their weight around once more. And the wireless industry is, of course, bracing itself for the coming anti-trust battle royale over the AT&T/T-Mobile merger.

Rather than bludgeoning industry on this issue, FCC has created an environment where service providers can bludgeon each other in the marketplace. The deal represents a possible way forward in the world of regulatory affairs. Though it remains to be seen if lightning will strike twice.