How Lucky We Are To Be Alive Right Now: Revisiting the Network Compact

In the hit Broadway musical Hamilton Eliza Schuyler sings, “Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now.” Eliza, of course, is talking about the American Revolution. We can feel the same way about the revolution we are living through. Our revolution is a network revolution.

Driven by ever-evolving technology, the networks that connect us are changing…and the patterns of commerce and culture that depend on those connections are changing as a result. This is a time of incredible opportunity and reshaping. It is a time of testing. To be a part of it is a privilege. Charlie Firestone has asked me to forecast what lies ahead for this revolution and the FCC. Today, we stand in the shadow of those Americans who lived through their own network revolution. Just as they were, we are challenged to make sense of the new network realities. That is our test at the FCC. For the past almost eight years, the FCC has sought to confront network change head-on; to harness the network revolution to encourage economic growth, while standing with those who use the network as consumers and innovators. In that regard, the history of the network experience that preceded us is not some curiosity, it is a compass. I think of the lessons of the past as a “back azimuth,” a concept familiar to navigators in which a landmark in the rear is used to inform the path forward. In the communications technology space, our back azimuth is what I call the Network Compact: the responsibilities of those who build and operate networks. There are five components of the Network Compact: access, interconnection, consumer protection, public safety, and national security.


How Lucky We Are To Be Alive Right Now: Revisiting the Network Compact