Hundt: Make broadband policy top priority
Telephony caught up with former Federal Communications Chairman and would-be wireless network entrepreneur Reed Hundt at the OFC/NFOEC event in San Diego. The exclusive interview that resulted is a tough analysis of broadband policy, universal service fund reform, the ongoing peer-to-peer traffic-shaping controversy and the uncertainty surrounding the final days of the 700 Mhz spectrum auction.
It seems that to Hundt an open-access broadband policy can solve a lot of problems, and that an industry commitment to 100 mbps access and clarity about the pricing and performance users can expect would mitigate the P2P controversy. The creation of an open, universally available broadband network also would make the universal service fund debate moot.
But, the real nugget of the interview comes at the end, where Hundt wonders why President Bush doesn't give telcos accused of wiretapping the Scooter Libby treatment.
For more:
- read this interview at Telephony
Related article:
- The FCC recently started to tackle universal service fund reform
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Comments
By Ghost of Reed Hundt's Past | Posted 3:04pm | February 29, 2008
When it was in Mr. Hundt's political interests wasn't he who:
1. was the Architect, alongside Congress and Bill Clinton of the Comm Act of 1996 encouraging entrants to build a "competitive" business for consumers by renting from ILECs?
2. decided that Broadband measurement starts at 200 kbps while leading countries were measuring at 50 meg or above at the time? 100 meg today?
3. encouraged competition by sharing the same ILEC copper infrastructure as a legacy gift to the ILECs to generate rental cash for installing new fiber networks which are closed to others?
4. gave incumbent cable companies and ILECs a pass, albeit different approaches, to keeping their last mile fiber or fiber coax networks closed?
Do we remember Mr. Hundt's success story once out of the FCC as Chairman of Sphera Networks trying his hand in the game he created while Chairman of the FCC. Spehera raised $600m to compete, and went bankrupt in less than 9 months under Chairman Reed using his own FCC model ... one of the fastest bankruptcies during the telecom meltdown?
What credibility does Reed Hundt have I ask? He is trying to act in his financial interests now. It is apparent as Chairman of the FCC he was not acting in the Public interest given the debacle/collapse of telecom or as the Chairman of Sphera in bankrupting his shareholders interests.
Reed Hundt has no credibility ... stop wasting pixels quoting this guy.