Kicking off a Summer of Change

Things can change quickly in technology and telecommunications. And that is certainly the case at the Federal Communications Commission this week! I want to express my thanks and appreciation to Commissioner Starks and Commissioner Simington for their public service, as both have announced today that they will be departing the FCC by the end of the week. I wish them all the best in their next endeavors. But, as the saying goes, the show must go on. Turning to the agenda for the June 26 Open Commission meeting. One effort we have been undertaking at the FCC is on the good government front. That includes identifying and eliminating regulations that are effectively dead wood—rules that have been overtaken by events and in many cases no longer serve any purpose at all. I would like to consider an order that gets rid of those obsolete and unworkable rules. If adopted, we would remove 77 rules and requirements that have no meaningful application today. Next, the Commission will consider an order that would eliminate the current standard for “certified” engineers and allow “qualified” engineers to certify data filings. Lastly, I am teeing up for a vote a proposal that would remove the ASCII requirement so Relay Service providers no longer have to maintain costly ASCII-compatible hardware and software systems and can invest in their provision of service instead.

There’s a lot of time between now and our scheduled June 26 Commission meeting.  So I wanted to lay out a couple of items that I would like to get done at the meeting if we can.  Stay tuned on that front.  What does he mean by that?  I just said stay tuned.  We always make a final decision about the Commission meeting and its agenda closer to the meeting date.  We will do so again here.