After months of waiting, the Senate confirmed two key members of the Obama communications and technology team: new FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) director Larry Strickling (his official title is Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information). And not a moment too soon.
Here is what is facing the new leaders right now: NTIA (along with the Rural Utilities Service) is expected to issue its “Notice of Funds Availability” imminently for the $7.2 billion in broadband stimulus money, and that “NOFA” will include the rules for applying for the grants, as well as the conditions (like non-discrimination) with which a grantee much comply.
The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president
and co-founder of Public Knowledge:
“We are very pleased that the Senate Commerce Committee acted so
quickly to approve the nominations of Julius Genachowski to be
the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and Robert
McDowell to serve another term as commissioner.
“We look forward to the full Senate confirming the nominees
quickly. The issues awaiting Commission action are too important
to be delayed any longer.”
As confirmation hearings go, today’s hearing on the nomination of Julius Genachowski to be the new Chair of the FCC and current Commissioner Robert McDowell to be renominated for a second term could only be called a lovefest. And why not? Both are among the most qualified individuals ever to have been nominated to serve the agency. Perhaps the most controversial exchange was the debate over how to pronounce the Chairman-to-be’s last name (for the record, it’s pronounced Gen-a-kow-ski, not chow-ski).
Genachowski sounded all the right notes - telling the story of how his father, an engineer, showed him his plans for turning text into signals so to help blind people to “read” words on paper.
This panel discussion, presented by The New America Foundation’s Wireless Futures Program, will examine which combination of technologies and policy reforms can open the airwaves and enable an era of pervasive connectivity. The panel includes technology and policy experts who believe dynamic, opportunistic access to underutilized spectrum - especially federal government bands - is feasible if we can only muster the political will.
New America Foundation
1899 L St NW, 4th Floor
Washington, DC 20036
Today, I'm happy to announce that we're launching a new video series here at Public Knowledge: "5 Minutes With Harold Feld". As you may recall, Harold joined our staff back in March and has since taken the helm as our Legal Director. Harold brings with him years of experience in the media reform space, not to mention a wealth of knowledge about the inner workings of Congress, the FCC and the courts. In this series, he'll be explaining complicated topics concisely, in layperson's terms.
In our first episode, Harold tackles the National Broadband Plan. As part of the Stimulus Act, Congress authorized the FCC to develop a plan for bringing fast, affordable broadband Internet access to all Americans. Harold explains the significance of the plan and details Public Knowledge's suggestions to the FCC regarding the National Broadband Plan (a full-text PDF of our comments, as filed with the FCC, can be found here). Take it away, Harold:
At long last, it looks like the Senate Republicans got their act together enough to settle on two FCC candidates: Current Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell and former NTIA Administrator Meredith Atwell Baker. While I expect a fair number of policy fights, I also expect to see this group weighing matters fairly and searching for common ground.
Both Baker and McDowell are fully up to speed on the gamut of media and telecom issues. Neither comes with a lot of incumbent industry baggage. Prior to joining the FCC, McDowell worked for Comptel representing competing telephone companies.
Quietly, last night, AT&T revised its wireless plans. In the latest changes to the service terms, it looks like AT&T is trying to exempt its own video services but prohibiting services like the Slingbox.
Sound familiar? I wrote it on April 3rd. iPhone and PDA users literally felt their significant investment get less valuable. They complained and AT&T removed the offending language by the next day, calling the language a mistake.
Guess what? It's back!
Sometime in the past 24 hours, AT&T changed the TOS again:
Quietly, last night, AT&T revised its wireless plans. In the latest changes to the service terms, it looks like AT&T is trying to exempt its own video services but prohibiting services like the Slingbox or other video web sites.
I find myself in complete agreement with the wireless industry on supporting The Radio Spectrum Inventory Act. This bill, sponsored by John Kerry (D-MA), Chair of The Subcommittee on Communications of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Roger Wicker (R-MS), requires NTIA and the FCC to account for every MHz of spectrum between 300 MHz and 3.5 GHz within 180 days of the bill’s passage.
PK President Gigi B. Sohn and PK Legal Director Harold Feld will be participating on seperate panels at the 2009 Broadband Policy Summit. The summit, Pike & Fischer’s preeminent communications policy forum, will once again play host to over 200 of the nation’s top executives, regulators and legislators as they debate and discuss the future of the broadband landscape.
