Tom Wheeler

COVID-19 has taught us the internet is critical and needs public interest oversight

The connectivity and services built by information capitalists have become too important to be left any longer without public participation in determining the rules they follow. Critical nature of these digital services warrants public interest representation in decisions about their practices. Here are four ideas to incorporate public participation in establishing the rules for the critical services of the information era:

Why the internet didn't break

Between Jan 29 (shortly after COVID-19 appeared in the US) and March 26 there was a 105% spike in people active online at home between 9:00 am and 6:00 pm. So why hasn’t the internet ground to a halt? The answer lies in the lessons of Mother’s Day and freeway traffic jams.

Coronavirus, campaigns, and connectivity

If we have to suspend or otherwise modify political campaigning because of coronavirus, social media will become even more important and the fissures it creates even more painful. We should expect the platform companies such as Facebook and Google to step up to this national emergency—but can we?

Moving from ‘secret sauce’ to open standards for 5G

Back in 2011 Marc Andreesen famously observed, “Software is eating the world.” Fifth-generation wireless technology is part of that evolution. Amidst all the hype about 5G, what makes it different is the simple reality that it uses software to virtualize activities that were once performed by function-specific pieces of hardware. Huawei would be disadvantaged if telecommunications networks threw off their old ways and began to think like Google and other digital-age companies.

Technology, tribalism, and truth

The internet was supposed to be the great gift to democracy because everyone would be free to express themselves without the interference of editors or other filters. Instead, the business model of the internet—collecting and manipulating personal information to sell targeting services—has created the tool for attacking the democratic imperative to seek Unum. Our foreign adversaries have proven especially talented in exploiting this capability.

Placing a visible hand on the digital revolution

As we enter the third decade of the 21st century—the digital century—it is time for the public interest to reassert itself. Thus far, the digital entrepreneurs have been making the rules about the digital economy. Early in this decade, We the People must reassert a visible hand on the tiller of digital activity. Will public policy intervene to protect personal privacy? Can our leaders act to preserve the idea of a competition-based economy?

Going backwards in the “race for 5G”

The collision of corporate opportunism and Republican anti-government orthodoxy has pushed the United States backwards on the allocation of important spectrum for fifth-generation wireless networks (5G).

Can social media “targetcasting” and democracy coexist?

Since the time of the early advertising-supported newspapers, economic incentive has worked to bring people together around a common set of shared information. Maximizing ad revenue meant offending as few readers as possible by at least attempting a balanced presentation of the facts. The search for balance began to retreat with the arrival of cable television, but the economic model of maximizing revenue by maximizing reach still governed. The targeting capability of social media algorithms, however, has extinguished the traditional economic model.

Putting corporate America’s new ‘stakeholder’ principles to work in regulatory policy

Too often, the corporate response to regulation has not been “what’s best for all stakeholders,” but “what’s best for the CFO (Chief Financial Officer).” The lobbying refrain sounds like this: “because regulation could hurt profits, it will hurt our ability to invest and innovate and therefore hurt the public interest.” You hear this from Big Pharma’s television ads. Broadband networks used the argument to kill net neutrality.

The Presidential Candidates Need a Plan for Big Tech That Isn’t “Break Up Big Tech”

What is the agenda that provides hope and opportunity for Americans in a new digital-based economy? So far, much of the campaign focus on the new economy has been reduced to a misleadingly simple “break ‘em up!” solution for Big Tech.

California Will Have an Open Internet

At present, 34 states (and the District of Columbia) have introduced some kind of open internet legislation.

Why 5G requires new approaches to cybersecurity

5G will be a physical overhaul of our essential networks that will have decades-long impact. Because 5G is the conversion to a mostly all-software network, future upgrades will be software updates much like the current upgrades to your smartphone. Because of the cyber vulnerabilities of software, the tougher part of the real 5G “race” is to retool how we secure the most important network of the 21st century and the ecosystem of devices and applications that sprout from that network.

5G in five (not so) easy pieces

Throughout the world, ink is being spilled and electrons exercised in a frenetic focus on fifth generation wireless technologies, or 5G. The 5G discussion, with all its permutations and combinations, has grown to resemble an elementary school soccer game where everyone chases the ball, first in one direction, then another. There are five often misunderstood facts to know about 5G:

How the FCC lost a year in “the race to 5G”

A year ago, the Trump Federal Communications Commission announced a proposal to reallocate C-band spectrum for 5G. With much fanfare, the FCC trumpeted a plan to outsource to the satellite companies the process of auctioning these airwaves. Rather than the kind of open and transparent auction process the agency has followed since the first spectrum auction in 1994, the Trump FCC declared it would be “faster” to embrace what they called a “marketplace approach” in which the licensees took over the job traditionally done by the FCC.

Internet capitalism pits fast technology against slow democracy

Technology-driven changes—like those we are presently experiencing—produce demands for security and stability that pose a threat to liberal democracy and capitalism. Across the world, autocrats are on the rise because they claim they can deliver answers; symbols such as Brexit or the Wall pose as solutions; and old economic “isms” are reborn as “new” solutions.

Should big technology companies break up or break open?

There can be little doubt that the major digital companies have gained a level of economic control akin to the industrial barons of the Gilded Age. It is important to take steps to introduce much needed competition into the digital marketplace. Clearly, a more active review of mergers is necessary, even when the acquired company is comparatively small.

Mark Zuckerberg’s call for internet rules only goes part way

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s call for new rules for the Internet is a start. The four proposals he makes open the door to a meaningful discussion about the effects of internet capitalism. Now what is needed is a similar look at the issues underlying the market dislocations caused by a handful of internet companies. As significant as Zuckerberg’s proposals are, it is important to recognize they deal with the effects of internet commerce more than their causes: the business model of internet companies.

The tragedy of tech companies: Getting the regulation they want

American technology companies today find themselves in a conundrum Oscar Wilde identified: “There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” The tech companies—both networks and the platform services that ride on them—have run the table in Washington as multiple government agencies and Congress repeatedly walked away from regulatory oversight. The result has been the digital companies’ discovery of Wilde’s second tragedy. 

A Democratic agenda for regulating tech: Follow the Republican Roosevelt

With Democrats in control of the House of Representatives, at least one chamber of Congress could be poised to meaningfully update consumer and competition protection rules for the internet age. In doing so, they would be well advised to follow Republican Theodore Roosevelt’s efforts in the industrial age. Today, the internet barons are making the rules for the new economy. Roosevelt’s admonition is simple: There must be a “still higher power” that makes rules for the protection of the public interest.

With new technology challenges, remember we’ve been here before

In my new book, “From Gutenberg to Google,” I examine the two great network revolutions of the past—the printing press in the 15th century, as well as the combination of the railroad and telegraph in the 19th century—to put in historical perspective the confusion and uncertainty brought about by the internet today. Though current technology may be causing massive societal changes faster than ever before, the book discusses how these past upheavals shed light on how to deal with the issues of the information age.

Government shutdown halts the Trump FCC’s deregulation agenda

The companies that have been the beneficiaries of the Trump Federal Communications Commission’s deregulation are now discovering that a government that does nothing cannot serve their interests.

If 5G Is So Important, Why Isn’t It Secure?

The Trump administration’s so-called “race” with China to build new fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks is speeding toward a network vulnerable to Chinese (and other) cyberattacks. So far, the Trump administration has focused on blocking Chinese companies from being a part of the network, but these efforts are far from sufficient.

Time to move beyond 5G hype

It is time to move past the political and marketing talking points to consider both the promise of 5G and the challenge to its realization. First of all, to call 5G a “race” is a deceptive metaphor. A “race” connotes a contest along a common course with a start and finish. The reality is that 5G networks will be built piece-by-piece, area-by-area, and application-by-application over a protracted period of years. The national strategy for 5G needs to move beyond slogans and press releases.

The FTC should match tech company innovation with oversight innovation

The Nov 27 Senate hearing on the activities of the Federal Trade Commission highlighted the shortcomings of applying industrial-era thinking to internet-era challenges. The new digital reality calls for both expansive regulatory oversight as well as legislative action. FTC Chairman Joseph Simons' constrained description of the FTC’s authority highlights the need for creative new responses the the ongoing collision between conservative dogma and the unconstrained activities of Big Tech.