'Free My Phone!'

Is Regulation Needed to Ensure Consumer Choice and Innovation in Wireless Broadband?

Policy Luncheon

Tuesday, January 22, 2008
11:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Russell Senate Office Building
Commerce Committe Hearing Room 253
Washington, DC

"Free My Phone" was the impassioned headline in the Wall Street Journal's weekly Technology section last October when Walt Mossberg, the influential consumer technology columnist, took both the wireless carriers and the FCC to task for not giving consumers the choice (as they have with wired networks) to use the devices and applications of their choice. Business Week's Stephen Wildstrom has echoed the view that more regulation is needed in his widely-read column. Apple's iPhone, which is locked to AT&T's network, became the poster child for a rethinking of the cellular industry's closed business model.

Earlier last year, Skype (the voice over Internet upstart) filed a petition asking the FCC to declare that the 40-year-old Carterfone rules - which allow consumers to attach any safe device to wired phone networks - apply equally to wireless networks. The FCC took a first step in August, adopting a proposal by New America and the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition, that the largest block of spectrum in the TV band auctions (which begin January 24) will be conditioned on the network operator giving consumers the choice to attach any device and run any application not harmful to the network. On November 27, Verizon Wireless announced it would voluntarily open its network in 2008 to "Any Apps, Any Device" - an Open Development Initiative giving consumers a broader choice of outside devices.

This event will focus on whether the clear marketplace trend toward more openness will be sufficient, or if regulation extending the Carterfone consumer choice rules from wireline to wireless are needed. Commissioner Copps - who worked closely with FCC Chairman Martin to impose the open access conditions on C Block licenses in the 700 MHz auction - will describe what he believes the FCC needs to do next. Tony Lewis will describe Verizon's initiative. Professor Frieden will present a paper that New America will release at the event describing FCC precedent for wireless Carterfone regulation - a follow-on to the New America paper, by Columbia Law Professor Tim Wu, that sparked the current policy debate over extending Carterfone non-discrimination rules to wireless.

Featured Speakers:

Commissioner Michael Copps
Federal Communications Commission

Walt Mossberg
Personal Technology Columnist, Wall Street Journal

Stephen Wildstrom
Personal Technology Columnist, Business Week

Tony Lewis
Vice President - Open Development Initiative, Verizon Wireless

Bob Calaff
Director - Technology Policy, T-Mobile USA

Richard Miner
Co-Founder, Google's Andriod Initiative

Blair Levin
Managing Director, Stifel Nicolaus and Co.

Christopher Libertelli
Senior Director - Regulatory and Government Affairs, Skype

Robert Frieden
Professor of Telecommunications, Penn State University

Michael Calabrese
Director, Wireless Future Program, New America Foundation

For further background visit: www.spectrumpolicy.org.

To RSVP for this event, reply to this email: communications@newamerica.net with name, affiliation, and contact information.

If you have questions, call or email Liz Wu at (202) 986-2700 x315 or wu@newamerica.net