April 2011

Speaking at the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International's Women in Public Safety Communications Leadership Conference, Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn addressed two of her passions: promoting public safety and empowering women.

She said: "Women face unique challenges in the workplace, but as I'm sure you've been told throughout the conference and during your personal and professional experiences, the ability to overcome those challenges is the trademark of a truly effective leader. It is important to understand and embrace the fact that there is more than one path to becoming a leader in this industry. Each of you brings diverse styles, interests, backgrounds, experiences, approaches, skill-sets, and answers to the table. This diversity is a strength; not a weakness. Some may have concluded that because you work in a male dominated environment, you should try to blend in; be like one of the guys. There is a time and a place for collaboration, and a time and a place for fitting in. But there is also a time and a place for standing out. There is a place for diversity in the communications industry - and as a matter of fact, there's a need.

"The more a local public safety agency reflects the diversity of its local community, the better prepared that agency is to serve the public safety needs of its citizens. Such an agency can better react to situations, and be better equipped to calm an individual who is desperate for help. There are circumstances in which a woman may not be comfortable opening up to a male 9-1-1 operator. Or, there may be callers who are less proficient in the English language. Your ability to relate to them in some way may actually mean the difference between life and death."

On March 21, 2011, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom announced an agreement under which AT&T will acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom in a cash-and-stock transaction currently valued at approximately $39 billion. Applications seeking Federal Communications Commission consent to the transfer of control of T-Mobile USA and its wholly-owned and controlled subsidiaries (“Applications”) are expected. The purpose of this public notice is to announce the opening of a docket, WT Docket No. 11-65, and articulate the ex parte status of discussions related to the proposed transaction.

Until the Applications are filed, discussions with FCC staff regarding this proposed transaction will continue to be exempt from any ex parte limitations or requirements. When applications are filed, this proceeding will be governed by permit-but disclose ex parte procedures that are applicable to non-restricted proceedings. Parties making oral ex parte presentations after the Applications are filed are directed to the FCC’s statement reemphasizing the public’s responsibility in permit-but-disclose proceedings and are reminded that memoranda summarizing the presentation must contain the presentation’s substance and not merely list the subjects discussed. More than a one- or two-sentence description of the views and arguments presented is generally required. At the time any Applications are filed with the FCC, the Commission will release a public notice to announce that fact. That public notice will also provide procedures for requesting ex parte meetings with staff regarding the proposed transaction.

[Commentary] Communications technologies have enormous consequences even though most of them go unrealized when those technologies are young. No one would have anticipated that Facebook or Twitter might one day figure in revolutions, just as no one could have anticipated that the telegraph would catalyze both the standardization of time keeping in the U.S. as well as the creation of national economic markets. We are now in the midst of a national debate — indeed, an international debate — around the impact of broadband networks. The current administration is intent on expanding access to broadband, especially in rural regions that have lacked fast access to the Internet. Critics ask exactly what broadband yields, and whether jolts of investment found in the stimulus are justified. What does it provide to rural regions that justify such large-scale investments? The simple answer is that rural communities will be economically crippled without broadband access. That’s the long and the short of it.

At a Free State Foundation discussion on Federal Communications Commission reform, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association's James Assey said regulatory reform can be tough, but that the government needs to "disenthrall itself" from the way things have always been done.

A call for reform, he said, is not a criticism of the FCC, but instead is an opportunity to recognize that the world has changes since statutes were enacted and regulations adopted. He called it a celebration of the marketplace having become able to maximize consumer benefits. [All hail the marketplace!] Assey said it was important to have a "strong regulatory screen" that counsels against intervention, particularly where the marketplace is developing rapidly. In the lumpiness and bumpiness of progress and innovation," he said, "there is tremendous consumer benefits."

FCC Chief of Staff Edward Lazarus said it is certainly not status quo at the FCC and that it is not "remotely focused" on the things it was focused on in 1999 when then FCC Chairman Bill Kennard proposed FCC reforms. He said its agenda is forward-looking and "relentlessly focused" on broadband deployment and adoption. but he conceded the FCC's organizational chart is antiquated and does not "recognize fully" the conversion taking place. He said within the FCC, however, and in the way it operates, a lot has changed notwithstanding the categories visible from the outside.