The Federal Communications Commission looks to be continuing its support of future-looking telecommunication technologies – including wireless – announcing this week the formation of an agency-wide “Technology Transitions Policy Task Force” that according to FCC Commissioner Julius Genachowski, “will play a critical role in answering the fundamental policy question for communications in the 21st century.”
Heading up the task force will be FCC general counsel Sean Lev and Rebekah Goodheart, associate chief of the wireline competition bureau; the FCC’s chief economist and CTO; representatives from across the agency, including staff from the wireline, wireless, media, consumer affairs and public safety bureaus; and representatives from the office of general counsel and the office of strategic planning and policy analysis.
The FCC noted the task force was needed in that: “The nation’s broadband transition means that communications networks are increasingly migrating from special purpose to general purpose, from circuit-switched to packet-switched, and from copper to fiber and wireless-based networks.”
The FCC said that it would work with the committee to coordinate efforts on IP interconnection, the “resiliency” of communication networks, business broadband competition and consumer protection, though that last item was noted to have a “particular focus on voice services,” which seems odd in the ever-growing data world.
“The task force will conduct a data-driven review and provide recommendations to modernize the commission’s policies in a process that encourages the technological transition, empowers and protects consumers, promotes competition, and ensures network resiliency and reliability,” the FCC noted in a statement.
“We anticipated and addressed many of these issues in the national broadband plan and we’ve taken game-changing steps to deliver on its vision, including a once-in-a-generation transformation of universal service and inter-carrier compensation and unprecedented efforts to unleash new spectrum to meet skyrocketing wireless demand,” noted Genachowski. “Congress has acted to update our communications laws to keep pace with the broadband transition, including by enacting the landmark Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 [CVAA], which ensures that individuals with disabilities have access to today’s communications technologies, and by authorizing the creation of a national interoperable public safety broadband network. These actions are accelerating and spurring investment in 21st century communications networks. But there’s still significant work for the commission to do.”
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