Charting the Telecom Future with Free State Foundation
Our friends at the Free State Foundation recently held their 10th Annual Telecom Policy Conference here in Washington, D.C., and the proceedings covered the most important issues facing consumers, regulators, and the industry today. From net neutrality to 5G rollout to consumer privacy, FSF President Randy May and his guests provided smart analysis of where policymakers should be going and whether they’re headed in the right direction.
Telecom nerds will especially enjoy “All-Star Panel II: Solutions for Getting Past Net Neutrality and Advancing the Gigabit and 5G Future.” The panel featured Jeffrey Campbell of Cisco, David Cohen of Comcast, Kathleen Grillo of Verizon, and Christopher Lewis of Public Knowledge.
The question of what’s going to happen to net neutrality is an especially hot one. The Senate is poised to vote soon on a resolution of disapproval that would overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s 2017 order reversing the Obama-era imposition of a net neutrality regime. Even if approved by the Senate, however, that resolution is unlikely to actually be signed into law by President Trump, so that leaves us with the same open question, addressed in the video above, of what Congress and the FCC should do to support a vibrant future for high-speed networks. Part of the answer, per my colleague Ryan Radia, is “Improving America’s Broadband through Competition, Not Regulation.” See also Ryan’s Web Memo from last year on “Rethinking the Federal Communications Commission.”