DSL Prime: After Robert Pepper, Ensign

Perhaps it's no coincidence that shortly after the departure of the FCC's best public face and clued in advisor comes a bill to free the internet in any nation other than the U.S., where it is proposed law.

by Dave Burstein of DSL Prime and Future of TV [October 12, 2005]

Senator Ensign from Mars, not Nevada
His open access does not apply to any U.S. network
The rhetoric sounds great. "A consumer may not be denied access to any content provided over facilities used to provide broadband communications service." The reality is opposite.

Ensign's next clause is, "Unless ...such access is inconsistent with the terms of the service plan of such consumer including applicable bandwidth capacity or quality of service constraints."

The result: this does not apply to any major network in the United States. Essentially all of them have terms of service in the fine print that say they don't have to deliver anything. Bringing "quality of service" into the debate is a giveaway the lobbyists wrote the clause. QoS is a key feature of Microsoft's IPTV at SBC, BellSouth and Verizon. Ensign needs to rewrite the bill so it applies on planet Earth.

Replacing Robert Pepper
Beyond Beltway Blindness and External Ignorance
Everyone at the FCC complains about the swarm of uninformed lobbyists spinning the truth, but Robert Pepper did something about it. He connected the Washington decision makers with the best independent minds in the telecom business, constantly hosting events and making private connections. The best of Wall Street—John Hodulik, Dan Reingold, Steve Kamman, Frank Governali, and their peers—regularly addressed the commission. Academics like Dave Clark and John Cioffi helped define broadband policy. CTOs like Niel Ransom briefed the staff; the FCC Technical Advisory Committee brings together many of the best and brightest, from Bell CTOs to Dewayne Hendricks and Kalle Kontson.

The hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying spending dominate the city of Washington, D.C. itself. These small glimmers of independent thought are crucial, and need rebuilding to meet Kevin Martin's goals of excellence and openness.

Pepper was also the external face of the FCC, winning respect from a technology community that generally believes "the government" does not have a clue. I've seen Pepper take command of a group including an MIT engineering professor, the world's leading developer of mesh wireless, and a dozen more world-class experts, and convince them many FCC policies were thoughtful and rational.

He earned their respect by taking the time to learn the technology in enough depth to discuss topics like wireless broadband beyond the hyperbole. Pepper would come twice a year to the crucial telecom conference for an open "Town Hall Meeting" where he presented the FCC positions in thoughtful depth. With Pepper gone, no one from the FCC has taken that role.

Kevin Martin as a commissioner worked actively for outreach, and has been approachable as Chairman as well. The Chairman does not have the time (or political freedom) to be the personal connection to the outside world that Pepper could be. Although Pepper cannot be replaced, the FCC can do much more outreach to the community it serves.

The Glittering Prize for Gordon Moore, Claude Berrou
Marconi's $100,000 at a Waldorf-Astoria banquet
Robert Galvin of Motorola has for decades been Intel's respected competitor. On November 4, Galvin will present Gordon Moore with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Marconi Society at Columbia University. Claude Berrou will be awarded the richest award in communications, the $100,000 2005 Marconi Prize for his discovery of turbo codes, which are in the VDSL2 standard and most new mobile phones. Jennie is in Paris as I write, interviewing Berrou's colleagues for a short movie to play at the event.

Earlier in the day at Columbia, a dozen fellows of the Society highlight an event that doesn't require a black tie. Honoring Moore and Berrou will be Federico Faggin (who created the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004), Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf (TCP/IP), Jack Goldman (the "adult supervision" at Xerox PARC), Leonard Kleinrock, Bob Lucky, Harry Sello, Gottfried Ungerboeck, Herwig Kogelnik, Whitfield Diffie, James Massey, and David Forney. You rarely have the opportunity to meet so many men who would win Nobel Prizes if engineers were eligible. See you there. http://www.marconifoundation.org to register.

Copyright 2005 Dave Burstein.
The DSL Prime Newsletter is reprinted with permission.

"The power of the printing press belongs solely to those who own the presses"
—A.J. Leibling

The Internet is the cheapest printing press ever invented.

Related articles:
	[Sept. 23, 2005]	Senator, That's Not The Issue
	[Sept. 21, 2005]	DSL Prime: Politics Intervenes, Again
	[Sept. 16, 2005]	A CLEC Perspective on Regulation