Like a helpful elf, I have written down a Silicon Valley wish list for the new FCC Chairman to consider as he plots his priorities during his six year term in this critical position.
- Bring us IP- enabled networks swiftly.
- Deliver us more spectrum for wireless networks and to help enable the Internet of Things.
- Provide incentives to upgrade wired networks to serve all Americans including rural and remote communities, and bring ultra-fast broadband to anchor institutions and innovation centers for business.
- Provide critical leadership to educate other federal agencies, particularly health, education and agriculture, on the economic benefits of broadband and ensure their programs encourage broadband access and adoption of tele-health, tele-education and agricultural applications of broadband.
- Ensure reliability, affordable rates and universal service for all Americans for basic connectivity to the Internet and access to emergency communication systems.
- Speed up FCC processing of hardware and handset approvals, by putting in an FCC office in Silicon Valley, like the Patent Office did by placing an office in San Jose.
- Lead in open data, mobile apps, and GIS initiatives.
- Facilitate faster permitting approvals and environmental review of communications and IP-enabled networks.
- Ensure an interoperable, national public safety communications networks is built and sustainable.
- Spend time in Silicon Valley and other US tech innovation centers to understand the pace of innovation means the FCC must adopt new procedures to work faster and smarter.
Last week, Wheeler called for trials to aid the transition to next-generation high-speed communications networks utilizing Internet Protocol, or IP. By announcing that the FCC would begin a "diverse set of experiments" next year to facilitate the migration from our current copper voice-centric networks, the FCC chair signals his support of the innovation economy while ensuring consumers get what they want and need.
By supporting test trials for the transition to IP, Chairman Wheeler gives the technology community a stocking full of future technology goodies. The old legacy telephone network that has served America so well for so long needs a major overhaul akin to the jump from analog to digital in television transmission technology. The results will be dazzling, but it will take difficult work to cast aside old models and rework the regulatory scheme to take advantage of competition, innovation, and IP-enabled benefits, while preserving the goals of consumer concepts like universal service, just and reasonable rates, and Lifeline service for the poor.
In a blog post, Chairman Wheeler neatly summed up why the transition is important, and why the Commission is acting with urgency: "History has shown that new networks catalyze innovation, investment, ideas, and ingenuity. Their spillover effects can transform society – think of the creation of industrial organizations and the standardized time zones that followed in the wake of the railroad and telegraph."
For California especially, where tech is an influential industry and political force to be reckoned with — not just in the Silicon Valley, in innovation pockets throughout the state like San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego — Wheeler’s signal is significant. The test trials, first proposed by AT&T last year and most recently endorsed by FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel at an event in San Francisco earlier this month, are a critical part of the process. The trials are also the most time-consuming.
Since most estimates peg the completion of the IP transition to at least 2020, getting a jump on the trials is exactly the action the FCC should be taking. The more that our nation’s communications infrastructure is upgraded, the better our tech economy will be. But as with any major overhaul of infrastructure in America, there’s a risk that the usual "regulatory rodeo" could get in the way. Since policymaking is The Tortoise to technology’s Hare, Chairman Wheeler’s urgency — "Starting Now," as he puts it — should be the Christmas gift each entrepreneur will appreciate.
