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On June 24 2015 the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy hosted a symposium Completing the IP Transition: Confronting Technical Challenges and Maximizing Consumer Benefits. Given the premise that too little attention has been paid to either the underlying technical challenges or new consumer value of the the transition of today’s analog telephone network to the all-IP infrastructure of the Internet, participants considered the principle that reaching finish line requires policymakers and stakeholders to understand better the remaining engineering hurdles inherent in the on-going process, as well as the benefits that can be fully realized only with full implementation. The session comprised a keynote and two panels that explored these facets, technical and social. Video is below.
Keynote: Henning Schulzrinne, Professor, Columbia University and former Chief Technologist, Federal Communications Commission
Introduction: John Mayo, Professor of Economics, Business and Public Policy, Georgetown University and Executive Director, Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy
PANEL 1: Technical Challenges and How Best to Resolve Them
Speakers: Eric Burger, Research Professor of Computer Science, Georgetown University and Director, Security and Software Engineering Research Center at Georgetown University; David Farber, Adjunct Professor of Internet Studies, Carnegie Mellon University; Jon Peterson, Distinguished Fellow, Neustar; Don Parente, Director, Technology Strategy – Chief Architect, AT&T
PANEL 2: Opportunities for Enhanced Consumer Experience in an All-IP World
Speakers: Larry Downes, Project Director, Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy; Brian Fontes, CEO, National Emergency Number Association; Debra Berlyn, President, Consumer Policy Solutions; Patrick Brogan, Vice President of Industry Analysis, USTelecom; Eric Burger, Research Professor of Computer Science, Georgetown University and Director, Security and Software Engineering Research Center at Georgetown University; Dan Berninger, Founder, VCXC
Today Tuesday February 24 2015 the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business presents Rewriting the Communications Act: An Introductory Event. After more than a year of preparation, all eyes are on Capitol Hill in 2015 as Congress prepares to undertake one of its most important tasks affecting a significant part of the digital economy: rewriting the Communications Act of 1934. In keeping with the Center’s staying ahead of the issues at the nexus of business and public policy, the Center’s Evolution of Regulation and Innovation Project is pleased to announce the first of a series of convenings focused on eliciting the best ideas for how a new regime for the tech, media and broadband sectors should look. A panel of experts will address the technology, economic, political, and policy contexts of the current Congressional efforts, offer different perspectives that will identify common ground among parties that will be affected by a rewrite, explore areas of significant uncertainty, and elucidate the policy drivers that will shape the work ahead. Keynote address: David Farber, Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science and Public Policy, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University. Panel: Larry Downes, Project Director, Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy Project on the Evolution of Regulation and Innovation; Peter Rysavy, President and Founder, Rysavy Research; Glenn Woroch, Adjunct Professor, University of California, Berkeley and Senior Policy Scholar, Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy; John W. Mayo, Professor of Business, Economics and Public Policy, Georgetown University and Executive Director, Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy;
Moderator: Carolyn Brandon, Senior Industry and Innovation Fellow, Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy. The event will be webcast live.
On January 16 2013 Susan Crawford, author of “Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age†presented the theme of the book at Cardozo School of Law in NYC. The presentation was followed by a Q&A. Many ISOC-NY members attended and contributed to the discussion. Video is below. No captions as yet, but see the AMARA links below and, if you can, please contribute a few minutes of your time to the transcription process.
Today, Thursday, January 31st, 2013, Brooklyn Law Incubator and Policy Clinic (BLIP) and the New Networks Institute will host a Reverse ALEC Legal Hackathon at Brooklyn Law School. The invitation-only event, something of an emergency meetup, brings together experts, lawyers, advocates, technologists and competitors, who are concerned with the state of telecommunications in the United States. The goal is to create consensus and build a campaign to define principles for model regulation, pursue legal actions, and create a working path to accomplish the following goals
• Reverse the ALEC-state-based telecom and cable infrastructure deregulation, which has passed in varying degrees in multiple states.
• Stop the immediate threat: AT&T has petitioned the FCC to remove all telecom regulations and keep broadband networks closed, based on concepts in the ALEC-state based ‘model legislation’ that is now used in states and will be presented to Congress.
• Create a proactive, pro jobs and economic growth alternative model that is based on the principle that everyone in America is entitled to a very high speed broadband service that can handle cable, internet and phone services, where the customer selects the providers they want.
Participants include Susan Lerner (Common Cause), Bruce Kushnick (New Networks), Jonathan Askin (Brooklyn Law), Earl Comstock, and David Rosen. The morning plenary session will consist of three panels to outline the issues which, I am happy to report, ISOC-NY has arranged to webcast live via the Internet Society Chapters Webcasting Channel. There will be an opportunity to participate remotely via the livestream chat. No live captions, sorry.
What: Reverse ALEC Legal Hackathon webcast When: Thursday, January 31st, 2013 – 0930-1300 EST | 1430-1800 UTC Where: http://www.livestream.com/internetsocietychapters Twitter: #reverseALEC Agenda:
Panel 1: Opening Remarks.
Panel 2: Dialogues for Working Towards Consensus.
Panel 3: Panel 3: Reversing ALEC – What Do You Want to Discuss?
More information
AT&T, Verizon and Centurylink, working with the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC, have been able to pass “model deregulatory legislation†in 23 states and there will be more attacks in the remaining states. While these bills vary, their target is to close down all major telecom regulations and obligations including ‘carrier of last resort’ –where the company no longer has to provide phone service, much less upgrade the networks. At the same time, on the federal level, AT&T has petitioned the FCC to use this ALEC-based approach to close down the networks nationwide and has got the FCC to set up a ‘task force’ to make this happen.
While couched as “Internet freedomâ€, in reality this is only freedom of regulation for the communications companies. 50% of the US will be pushed into ‘digital dead zones’ as AT&T and Verizon are not upgrading about half of their territories; even wireless services are impacted as most cell sites and Wi-Fi hot spots connect to a wire.
As of this writing
• AT&T has submitted a Petition to the FCC to start the process of ‘transitioning the networks’. Comments are due on Jan 28th, 2013; Reply comments February 25, 2013
• Greg Walden of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee has announced hearings starting February 5th, 2013. We expect he will be proposing legislation in Congress to finish the job.
Alongside this, 19 states legislatures have closed municipalities’ ability to offer competitive broadband services and more are expected.
Giving the wired companies monopoly controls over their wires also impacts everything from competition and innovation to the price of service – or even who gets service, and customers will have no recourse. It also means no plans for major upgrades, thus no cable or even broadband competition. And it gives control over all aspects of service, from Net Neutrality or bandwidth caps, to acting as a policeman of content or blocking innovative services.
Kushnick’s Law states:”A regulated company will always renege on promises to provide public benefits tomorrow in exchange for regulatory and financial benefits today.” In this interview he explains how AT&T’s recently announced plan to spend $14 billion to upgrade its network in exchange for a rescinding of regulation should be approached with skepticism, and how citizens and communities might respond to protect their interests.
On Monday September 24 2012 the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) hosted State of Telecom 2012 at Columbus Business School NYC. This year this annual conference was presented jointly with European analyst group IDATE and billed as a ‘transatlantic dialog’. The theme is ‘Over the Top: New Business Models with New International Telecom Rules?‘ The event was webcast live via the Internet Society Chapters Livestream Channel and is archived here or below.
1. Welcome
Speakers:
• Robert C. Atkinson – Director of Policy Research, CITI
• Eli Noam – Director, CITI
• Yves Gassot, CEO, Digiworld byIDATE
2. Business Models for Network Operators in an OTT World
Moderator:
• Raul Katz – Director, Business Strategy Research, CITI
Speakers:
• Vincent Bonneau, Head of the Internet Department, IDATE (France)
• Jacquelynn Ruff, VP International Public Policy,Verizon (USA)
• Stephane Dufour, CSO, Swisscom (Switzerland)
• Paul Budde, Managing Director, BuddeCom (Australia)
• Yu-li Liu, Professor, National Chengchi University (Former NCC Commissioner) (Taiwan)
• Simon Wilkie – Former Chief Economist, FCC
3. Sen. Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and Member of the UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development (Australia)
4. The Impact of OTT on Traditional National Networks and Media
Moderator: Judith D. O’Neill – COO, CMAS Holdings
Speakers
• Gabrielle Gauthey, EVP Alcatel Lucent (France)
• Emmanuel Rochas, SVP & Head of the Strategy, Telecom France Orange (France)
• Henning Schulzrinne, Chief Technologist, FCC (USA)
• Richard S. Whitt, VP, Public Policy & Government Relations, Motorola Mobility (USA)
• Matthias Kurth, former President, Federal Network Agency (Germany)
5. Hon. Lawrence Strickling, Administrator, National Telecommunications & Information Administration (USA)
6. Regulation of Over-the-Top Services: Should National Regulation and the ITRs Be Expanded Beyond Networks to Include Applications?
Moderator: Robert Pepper, Senior Managing Director of Advanced Technology Policy, Cisco
Speakers:
• Roland Doll, VP International Governmental Affairs, Deutsche Telekom (Germany)
• Amb. David Gross, Wiley & Rein (former U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, Department of State) (USA)
• Leonard J. Cali, SVP, Global Public Policy, AT&T (USA)
• Chris Libertelli, Head of Global Public Policy, Netflix (USA)
• Carlos Raul Gutierrez, President of the Council – SUTEL (Costa Rica)
• Mark Cooper, Director of Research, Consumer Federation of America
• Sally Wentworth, Senior Manager of Public Policy, Internet Society
• David J. Farber, Trustee, Internet Society
Nov 29 2010: Evan Korth’s Computers & Society class presents an ISOC-NY sponsored talk by Susan Crawford, who previously served as President Obama’s Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy and was a former Board Member of ICANN. Currently, she is a professor at Cardozo Law School and a Visiting Research Collaborator at Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy. Most recently Susan has been in the forefront of opposition to the Comcast-NBC merger. http://scrawford.net/blog/
The Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) “State of Telecom” conference will be held on October 15 at the Columbia Business School, Davis Auditorium in the Shapiro Center (just behind Uris Hall). This year’s focus will be on “Matching Supply and Demand for the Next Generation of Broadband.” The conference will be a “Trans-Atlantic Dialog” co-organized with IDATE of France so the topic will be explored from a global perspective.
On Wednesday – Thursday February 24-25 2016 The New York State Department of Public Service will hold a Technical Conference in NYC to discuss their recent Telecommunications Study. The Telecommunications Study is designed to help the
Today, Thursday, January 31st, 2013, 
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