Policymakers

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has canceled plans to appear at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) the week of Jan 8, missing the show for the first time in five years and what would have been his first appearance as head of the commission. 

On Dec 20, 2017, the Department of Commerce renewed the Charter for the Digital Economy Board of Advisors. It has been determined that the Committee is necessary and in the public interest.  The Digital Economy Board of Advisors was established on December 22, 2015, as a
federal advisory committee to provide advice and recommendations to the Secretary of Commerce, through the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, on a broad range of issues concerning the digital economy and internet policy.

As a native New Yorker, Donald Trump has been reading the New York Times for decades. When I worked at the Times in the late 2000s, Trump sometimes sent me and my colleagues copies of our stories from the print edition with a compliment or a complaint scrawled in black sharpie pen. During his presidential campaign, Trump routinely called the Times "failing," often seemingly in response to stories he did not like. His campaign even threatened to sue The Times, but did not follow through.

Rallying around a plan to eliminate the digital divide by 2022, a diverse group of community leaders, rural advocates and top innovators announced the national launch of Connect Americans Now. The new alliance will work with the Federal Communications Commission and other policymakers to ensure that there is sufficient unlicensed low band spectrum in every market in the country to enable broadband connectivity.

For decades, Rupert Murdoch has used his media properties to establish a direct line to Australian and British leaders. But in the 44 years since he bought his first newspaper in the United States, he has largely failed to cultivate close ties to an American president. Until now. Murdoch and President Donald Trump — both forged in New York’s tabloid culture, one as the owner of The New York Post, the other as its perfect subject — have traveled in the same circles since the 1970s, but they did not become close until recently, when their interests began to align more than ever before.

Google-parent Alphabet said Eric Schmidt will step down from his post as executive chairman in January and transition to a role as technical adviser. Schmidt, who joined Google in 2001 and served as its chief executive until 2011, also will continue to serve on Alphabet’s board. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai “and I all believe that the time is right in Alphabet’s evolution for this transition,” Schmidt said.

Meredith Attwell Baker, President and CEO of CTIA, has agreed to a five-year contract extension that will keep her as the head of the leading wireless industry group. Baker joined CTIA in 2014 and oversees the wireless industry’s political advocacy as well as key industry initiatives.  Under her leadership, CTIA has broadened its reach attracting new members to reflect the growing importance of mobile to the US economy.  CTIA has also invested in the technical and policy expertise needed for tomorrow’s challenges, launched a new annual convention, and developed key programs to help enable t

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai appoints the following individuals to the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) Board of Directors:

Representative for schools that are eligible for discounts under to section 54.501 of the Commission’s rules: Joan H. Wade, Ed.D., Executive Director, Association of Educational Service Agencies;  Representative for low-income consumers: Ellis Jacobs, Senior Attorney, Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc.;

Ajit Pai is drunk on free market economics. There’s no other way to explain his decision as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission’s to tear up the nation’s net neutrality rules for no good reason. Contrary to the view of some critics, Pai is not corrupt. Yes, he was a lawyer for Verizon, a fierce opponent of net neutrality, but his decision to scrap the rules was not motivated by a desire to win favor with his former bosses in the telecom industry. Instead, the problem is that Pai is a zealot.

A Democrat, Barack Obama’s former Federal Trade Commission chief Jon Leibowitz, dismissed network neutrality repeal as no big deal in the pages of the Wall Street Journal on Dec 13. He celebrated that the FTC would get restored authority to aggressively police the internet for anti-competitive or unfair conduct.The op-ed contained an unusual disclaimer:" Leibowitz was a Democratic commissioner at the FTC from 2004-13 and chairman beginning in 2009.