FCC wonks

"Industry Perspective"

Impressionistic transcript by Cory Doctorow

doctorow@craphound.com

July 9, 2003

Supernova Conference

Washington DC

--

Bob Pepper, Chief of Policy Development for the FCC, was supposed
to be here, but he's ill. Some of the FCC people in the room are
taking the stage for an informal town-hall. Peter Tenhula,
Director of FCC Spectrum Policy Task Force; Barbara Ezben,
Associate Bureau Chief in the Media Bureau; Robert Cannon, Office
of Strategic Planning; Scott Marcus, Senior Advisor for Internet
Tech; Rob Tanner, Legal Advisor in Common Carrier Bureau

--

Robert:

People come to the FCC with a lot of Green Field ideas, that only
work in the absence of interested parties and carriers.

--

Barbara:

We did the DTV transition to get the spectrum back and auction it
off for the public coffers. It's not totally misguided. When the
spectrum is reclaimed, it will be a great boom for the telecoms
industry. And plenty of people want HDTV.

--

Scott:

You have to keep in mind that fiber to the home looks attractive
and plausible today, but does the economics warrant it? Can't the
market address it? Do people need that much bandwidth?

--

Isenberg:

How much bandwidth DO people need?

--

Scott:

The market will tell us.

--

Barbara:

It's easier than it's ever been for the public to reach us. We
hear from lots of people who are beltway outsiders.

It's hard for an administrative agency to be contacted by a
public that is accustomed to talking to elected officials and
getting a response. Expert agencies with technical expertise are
being directed comments that are more appropriate to legislative
arenas.

Valuable commentary helps us to work out a reasonable solution.
It's a data-point that 750,000 Americans would prefer that we
don't do something in particular [Ed *cough* media consolidation
*cough*]. At the end of the day, that's not as helpful as
feedback from someone who has economic expertise.

--

Rob Tanner:

We hear a lot from the "thin part of the dumbell" but not from
people like you. There's a vacuum. We need more interaction to
help us understand what's going on today. It would go a long way
towards giving us a real-world understanding.

--

Scott:

700,000 comments isn't the same as 700,000 votes. But it means
something.

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