December 2008

[Commentary] There will be nothing easy or certain about Obama administration policies to advance and monetize broadband as an essential infrastructure, even as Silicon Valley's most formidable players are curtailing innovation in what economists are calling The Great Recession. Unlike the other monumental challenges confronting president-elect Barack Obama, broadband interactivity can be an immediate, universal catalyst for commerce, communications and wide-ranging productivity. It can generate new jobs, revenue streams and profits in a better economy while requiring minimal investment. The Internet and all things interactive comprise the 21st-century's Wild West of unregulated prospects. Certainly, encouraging companies to develop compelling, advanced services for an Internet recast as a national utility at a time of pervasive technology must involve tax credits for innovation and initiatives. There must be subsidies to support advanced interactive applications for public services, health and environment, and overall commerce. Tech, Internet, content and services companies must be motivated to create new reasons for commercial interactivity. Innovation and continued digital transformation must lead the economic recovery. About half of all IT capital spending traditionally has come from financial services and industrial companies under siege. Perhaps the best overriding incentives could come in a far-flung New Deal-inspired plan for broadband, bringing together private and public players and funds to build out an advanced broadband infrastructure that would serve commercial and civic interests. It would be a new deal for a new age that is barely rising.

[Commentary] There is no shortage of suggestions to the incoming Obama administration about what to do about communications policy in the United States. Online Americans might have one more suggestion: Make sure the Internet remains a place where users define what it means to be digitally connected. The willingness of American consumers to try new things is a source of our innovative culture. In a broadband and increasingly wireless Internet, it is not just about trying new things, but, for many users, also reworking and using them in new ways. Maintaining such an online environment will give users the wherewithal to continue to innovate and surprise.

As President-Elect Barack Obama looks for ways to deal with a shattered economy and an ongoing war on terrorism, security experts are urging him to pay attention to something that has a big impact on both: The nation's growing -- and fragile -- cyberinfrastructure. Potential adversaries have increasingly turned to cyberespionage as a way to find weaknesses in networks run by the government and the nation's critical infrastructure providers. Realistically, most of the necessary improvements must be devised and deployed from within private companies and government agencies. But Obama is in a unique position to lead on this issue and inspire others to fix the security holes, experts say.

The Federal Communications Commission said it will revise a rule requiring wireless companies to maintain enough generators or batteries to sustain cell phone and pager service in the event of a major power failure. In a notice to a federal appeals court that has been reviewing the rule, the FCC said it wouldn't override a recent White House decision to reject the backup power requirement, even though the commission has the authority to do so as an independent agency. The FCC instead will issue a new proposal "with the goal of adopting revised backup power rules that will ensure that reliable communications are available to public safety during, and in the aftermath of, natural disasters and other catastrophic events," the notice said. The earlier FCC proposal stemmed from discussions among public safety experts and government officials in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when communication networks were disrupted for long periods in certain areas because of power failures.