Blogs

Blair Levin
Former Executive Director, National Broadband Plan
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Forum
March 19, 2014

Every time there’s broadband related news -- a court decision, a merger, a hearing -- there’s a spate of articles in which the people who thought the U.S. was doing badly five years ago say we still are and the people who five years ago said we were doing great say we still are.

A debate where everyone recycles five-year old sound bites is not a recipe for progress.

Understanding Broadcasters v. Aereo

Have three sentences ever generated so much ink? On February 23, 2014, Comcast released the following statement:

There has been a wave of commentary, most of it negative, about Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable. Many of the columns and op-eds call for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice to stop the deal, but few have explained the process by which such transactions are reviewed.

Since January 14, the telecom world has been asking ‘What will Wheeler do next?’ This week, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler delivered his answer.

The most important decision the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has had to make in years is upon it. How this decision comes down will significantly affect the future of our nation’s communications networks. It will profoundly affect each of us as individuals -- and no one more profoundly than America’s minority and diversity communities. That’s because this is not only a communications issue. It is also a critically important civil rights issue. All of us who support the expansion of civil rights need to be in the thick of this decision.