[TriLUG] OT: (slightly) FCC Chairman at UNC [summary notes]

[Cristóbal Palmer]

The following is copied verbatim from my blog,
http://pebkac.homelinux.net. If you read http://planet.trilug.org, you
can safely ignore the rest of this message.

On media consolidation: he admitted that policy changes in the recent
past have been a "challenge" and will present further challenges. He
said that there will be 6 public hearings and $100,000+ spent on
studies [That doesn't sound like much, does it? That's what? Salary
for two researchers and office space?]. I'll have to look into where
these hearings are being held. During the question and answer session
at the end, an audience member shared that he was an electrical
engineer and had been on the Chapel Hill Town Council when cable
franchises had been renewed in the late '90s. The audience member
asserted that the process had been anything but fair. He said it was
the least level playing field he had ever seen. This was after the
Telecommunications Act of 1996, and he was astounded (he said) by how
stacked the FCC rules were in favor of TWC. The town was left with no
option but to take what TWC offered. "I don't disagree with you," said
the Chairman. The rest of his comments basically boiled down to "how
do we make the playing field more beneficial to consumers while
avoiding driving profitable business out of that market?"

On Net Neutrality: should the networks be able to charge content
providers for QoS on content types like video? Should we put rules in
place to prevent that? Basically his answer was "We haven't seen
network providers take action like that." Also, he framed it as if
tiered bandwidth choices [eg. 5Mbps down, 384Kbps up at one price;
8Mbps down, 512Kbps up at another–what I'm getting from TWC right now]
were part of the Net Neutrality debate. A questioner at the end
brought this back up and specifically asked him to clarify that point,
and he seemed to have a better picture (read: logical picture) on the
second go-round. Regardless, it seemed to me he was being very careful
about his wording. It sounded like he was echoing Telco "concerns"
about Net Neutrality without actually making any statements.

I got to ask the very last question. The question before mine was also
fairly interesting, so I'll repeat it here. The questioner asked if
there were plans to introduce regulation that would control content
provided via YouTube and other online video services. Mr. Martin said
that no, the Commission didn't have a mandate to regulate such content
since it was "pull-down" content. That is, consumers must actively
seek out that content, as opposed to content that is broadcast into
the home through TV. It was a quick answer, and one that made me
happy.

I began my question by asking if he was familiar with Yochai Benkler's
Wealth of Networks. I'm not sure he understood that part of my
question, but he seemed to nod in recognition. I continued, saying to
the entire audience that I recommended the book to all, and that I
brought it up because of the "Last Mile" question, since the book
addresses that. My question for him, then, was what policies or
regulations the FCC was looking at that would address the problem that
only the incumbent Cable and Telco operations are investing in the
"Last Mile" of broadband deployment. I specifically asked if he had
any comments on various proposals for mesh networks. His response was
that the FCC has made changes to make BPL easier (sorry Tanner, I
didn't feel like I could interject–more on that later) so that local
power utilities could, at their option, compete in the broadband
internet space. He also said that the FCC was looking at devices that
would operate in the "TV White Space" and allow for mesh networks. He
explained that TV White Space is the unused portion of the TV spectrum
that was historically not assigned so as to prevent interference
between channels. Newer technology allows for the use of that white
space without risk of interference. He said that these devices would
have to be "smart" enough to listen first, identify the white space,
and then try "talking" to neighbors.

I came away with very mixed feelings. Firstly, I was happy that he was
obviously very astute, bright guy. He knows what the issues of the day
are, and he knows how to talk about them. Trouble is, he seemed to
know how to talk about them at length without making real, meaningful
statements. His response to the former Chapel Hill Town Council member
is a perfect example. He agreed that limited choice is bad, but then
launched into an explanation of policy that didn't describe anything
that would meaningfully increase choice. On the other hand, he was
clearly eager to take questions and respond to people. In fact, the
Dean walked up to the front as he was finishing his response to the
question before mine. I raise my hand just as she started saying
something like, "That's all the time…" but he interrupted and asked if
he could answer my question, since I was the only one left with a
question. We were by my watch already two minutes over the time limit.
That's why I felt I couldn't interrupt when he suggested BPL as an
alternative broadband delivery method (sorry Tanner).

I'm feeling bad that I didn't have more time to do my homework on him
and recent FCC policy changes before attending the talk. I think my
sparse notes reflect that. If they post video or audio of the talk,
I'll link to it in another post. I'm also sour that I didn't really
find out if he's even heard of Benkler. Who knows? Maybe he'll
actually read it.

Peace,
CMP

On 3/4/07, Cristóbal Palmer <cristobalpalmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> Since at least one person found my Cory Doctorow posting helpful, I
> thought I'd pass on another:
>
> Who: FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin
> When: noon Monday the 5th
> Where: 2603 in the Knapp-Sanders Building, home to the UNC School of
> Government (google map via tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/2pgbyh )
>
> Please note that even if you can't make it, you can contribute by
> posting a question you'd like to have asked either here or on my blog
> ( http://pebkac.homelinux.net -- please note that new posters are
> moderated to prevent spam). If I can't ask your question, maybe
> somebody else can.
>
> Thanks,
> --
> Cristóbal M. Palmer
> UNC-CH SILS Student -- ils.unc.edu/~cmpalmer
> TriLUG Vice Chair
> "There are many roads to enlightenment, and thus many roads back to
> the One True Debian" --crimsun
>


-- 
Cristóbal M. Palmer
UNC-CH SILS Student -- ils.unc.edu/~cmpalmer
TriLUG Vice Chair
"There are many roads to enlightenment, and thus many roads back to
the One True Debian" --crimsun