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MCDOWELL SWORN IN AS FCC COMMISSIONER
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
Malcolm McDowell -- check that -- Robert McDowell was sworn in Thursday by Chairman Kevin Martin as a member of the Federal Communications Commission. Commissioner McDowell said, "I am honored and humbled to be joining such a distinguished group of commissioners as well as the fine career public servants at the FCC. There are many challenging issues facing the Commission, and I am eager to begin working on them with my fellow commissioners, with Congress, and with the American people. I am confident that our efforts will help bring the most advanced and efficient communications systems in the world to all American consumers." Commissioner McDowell brings to the FCC nearly sixteen years of private sector experiences in the communications industry. Immediately prior to joining the FCC, Commissioner McDowell was senior vice president and assistant general counsel for COMPTEL, an association representing competitive facilities-based telecommunications service providers, emerging VoIP providers, integrated communications companies, and their supplier partners, where he had responsibilities involving advocacy efforts before Congress, the White House and executive agencies. He has served on the North American Numbering Council (NANC) and on the board of directors of North American Numbering Plan Billing and Collection, Inc. (NBANC). Prior to joining COMPTEL in February 1999, McDowell served as the executive vice president and general counsel of America's Carriers Telecommunications Association (ACTA), which merged with COMPTEL at that time.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-265742A1.doc

* McDowell Sworn In
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6340356?display=Breaking+News

COALITION URGES BETTER SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT BY FCC
[SOURCE: New America Foundation]
Thirteen groups have joined in comments at the FCC concerning the future of the 902-928 MHz unlicensed band, which has become very important for community, municipal and commercial wireless broadband deployments. Unlicensed users share this band with companies licensed to provide a “Location and Monitoring Service” (M-LMS), and these licensees are lobbying for increased “spectrum flexibility,” which may be detrimental to unlicensed users. Currently, there are only three major unlicensed bands: the 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, and 5 GHz bands. The unlicensed spectrum in the 900 MHz band is the smallest but is also considered the most valuable. The M-LMS licensees acquired their licenses in 1999 and 2001 for about $3 million. If they are successful in their efforts, the value of their rights could increase to as much as $7 billion. The coalition's goals in these comments are 1) to prevent M-LMS operators from gaining additional rights at the expense of unlicensed users, 2) to prevent the FCC from granting the M-LMS licensees additional extensions on their missed construction deadlines, and 3) to encourage the FCC to not only recognize that M-LMS is a failed service but also remove the M-LMS allocation from the 902-928 MHz band, so unlicensed services can make better use of it. The coalition includes the New America Foundation, Media Access Project, the Alliance For Community Media, the Center For Digital Democracy, Common Cause the Consumer Federation of America, Free Press, Public Knowledge and other groups.
http://www.newamerica.net/Download_Docs/pdfs/Doc_File_3091_1.pdf

A NET NEUTRALITY METAPHOR
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Art Brodsky]
[Commentary] We may be as little as a week away from a vote in the House on Net Neutrality. At this point, it’s uncertain whether there will be a vote on a legitimate Net Neutrality amendment to the bill (HR 5252) that passed the House Commerce Committee. The telephone and cable companies have been going all out to smooth the way by proposing what appears at first to be a reasonable policy, which, on further review, doesn't hold up quite so well. Rachel Maddow on her radio show recently used a nicely descriptive phrase when talking about how politicians phase in gradually policies they don't think would meet with public approval if introduced all at once. The phrase is “boiling the frog.” The metaphor goes like this: If you throw a frog into boiling water, it will jump out. But if you put a frog in warm water, and gradually raise the temperature, it will become acclimated, until it becomes cooked. Gross, but accurate. This is what the telephone companies and their allies who sell them equipment are doing. The metaphor was on display last week when Verizon Executive Vice President Tom Tauke testified before the Senate Commerce Committee. Verizon is not trying to do away with the current Internet, Tauke said. (Water warm). Verizon argues we have had “a real change in the paradigm” in dealing with network issues. (Water warmer.) Through its fiber offering, Verizon will put three separate channels into the consumer’s home, one for the Internet, one for video and one for whatever else Verizon wants to use it for, through its “virtual private network.” (I feel those bubbles.) We want to draw the distinction, Tauke said, between offering Internet services and other access, which would be services for which Verizon “may provide some unique arrangements.” (Rare, medium or well done?) Let’s be clear about what Congress will create in telecommunications legislation. There will be today’s plain “Internet access” and this other, “general access” service equipped with “unique arrangements.” That is a two-tiered system, with the telephone or cable company in complete control.
http://www.publicknowledge.org/

* How Independent Artists Could Lose Their Independent Internet
http://www.voxunion.com/Independent_Artists_and_Independent_Internet.pdf

NET NEUTRALITY TOLL-ROAD PLAN FLOATED
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) released a plan this week that would allow broadband providers to offer exclusive, high-speed services to customers of their choosing, but it would also guarantee a level of broadband service that all Web companies and customers could access without paying new fees. The ITIF proposal attempts to bring a "nonpartisan, objective and pragmatic" view to the so-called net neutrality debate, said plan co-author Rob Atkinson, president of ITIF. "There's been a lot of name-calling and really an unproductive kind of debate," he said. But a spokesman for Public Knowledge, an online rights advocacy group pushing for a net neutrality law, said the ITIF plan mirrors what broadband providers are currently proposing. Public Knowledge and other net neutrality advocates have opposed a two-tier Internet, and the ITIF plan allows broadband carriers to put customers and competitors in a slow lane, said Art Brodsky. The ITIF proposal doesn't address a problem of too few broadband providers available to most U.S. residents and a temptation of broadband providers to discriminate against competitors, he added. "The whole point of this thing is we only have two providers," Brodsky said. "On the whole, I don't really think this is a third way."
http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/06/01/78867_HNtollroadneutrality_1.h...