Mark’s history mirrors the wireless industry closely and includes being the CTO of Leap and leading developments at Nextwave and Qualcomm. Today, he is doing some consulting and thinking about new opportunities in the market.
With all this history the discussion takes us to in-depth analysis. He blogs about various aspects of the industry and his life at http://spassmeister.com/ .
On this call, we discussed.
The History of GSM and CDMA and why we are at where we are.
The role of WiMAX in the market.
How it relates to wireless backhaul.
The issues of spectrum.
The smartphones impact on the carriers.
Demand and Costs are converging on the carriers roll out of wireless backhaul.
What business models are making sense right now?
What the opportunity for White Space in the market?
You can find Mark’s website at http://markkelleyonline.com/index.html
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has expanded from four to six the principles of freedom associated with Net Neutrality. Now however these principles are now going to be codified into regulatory rules. So the question has to be asked can the concept of “open” be governed. Join us as we look at how these principles will be incorporated into policy. What companies, services and devices will be subject to these rules. And discuss if the jurisdiction of the FCC has to be modified to enable these principles.
Participants include: Todd Daubert of Kelley Drye, Hank Hultquist of AT&T and Rick Whitt of Google. Join us on Tuesday October 6th, 2009 at 12:30 EST to 1:30 EST as we see if Open can be Governed (http://apps.calliflower.com/conf/show/58623)
Al Franken, who probably has more to lose from piracy of his movies, and skits than any other senator (well maybe Fred Thompson and the late Sonny Bono are his peers), took up the challenge of Free Speech on the Internet.
While many are calling this the Net Neutrality debate, the issue was recast more to the issues of Media ownership and control. Casting Net Neutrality in this light connects it to concepts such as difference between unserved and underserved as described in the Stimulus package and asked of FCC Chairman Genachowski at his hearings.
Law not only repeating history, but tends to be being glued to it.
Precedent carries over centuries after the metaphor applies. Terms like telegraphic and telephonic are embedded in the discussions we face today. When Senator Franken asked the question of the judge, the issue was not the carriage issue, but that of free speech.
This is a game changing perspective, because despite our friend David Isenberg’s efforts the network is not as dumb as we would like. Packet Inspection, Content Delivery and traffic prioritization point to the fact that the choice is being made based on knowing aspects of the content.
So it’s a valid concern as to what the FCC’s jurisdiction includes when it comes to the the Internet? The days of the three-tone slope are gone and monitoring the wires is not a comprehensive view. On the hand do we want decency to be monitored by the FCC so that every youtube video suffers the scrutiny of the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction?
Congress is wrestling with lots of issues separately, the newspaper’s industry’s collapse with the rules of media ownership. Adding Freedom of Speech into the mix feels strained for traditional phone networks, but perhaps it time to rethink what we are trying to control.
In European law media is not segmented by technologies, (i.e., cable, satellite, wireline, wireless), but viewed as comprehensive whole. But even their goal is to regulate access and not content.
Senator Franken has a good question that has been out of scope. We still do not have ubiquitous broadband access.
If you live near an NFL team you probably have choices in services. If you don’t broadband Internet access is scarce.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) has expanded on the $7.4 Billion in the stimulus with an incentive strategy that further encourages the deployment by the private sector of broadband services. The tax incentive strategies helps with the operations cost, plus the formation of companies that can benefit from the stimulus, it is also complimentary to strategies for the next generation of networked emergency services as well.
So congratulations to the one Senator who is looking to get broadband where it’s not and to other who is trying to make sure it’s on the behalf of all. I hope they tackle the battle together of what do we want regulated today. Of course they will need to let bygones be bygones.
Remember the stimulus package divided the monies into two buckets and put the FCC in the role of advisor more than administrator. Obviously, Senator’s Hutchison’s incentives are to support localized control.
I think its safe to expect that Judge Sotomayor will hear another Brand X case in her near future.
