Obama to tap telecom lobbyist for FCC, Rep. Watt to head housing finance agency
Source: Washington Post
President Obama on Wednesday will nominate telecom industry lobbyist Tom Wheeler to head the Federal Communications Commission and Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) to be the next director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the White House said.
Wheeler, a venture capital investor and friend of Obama’s, would take over an agency struggling to keep up with enormous changes in the telecom industry as consumers turn to mobile devices and ultra-fast broadband Internet for news, communications and video entertainment.
Watt would be the first permanent director in nearly four years for the obscure but powerful housing regulator that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants that were bailed out by taxpayers in 2008 and today control more than half of the mortgage market. Fannie and Freddie wield great power over who gets a loan and at what cost — and, for struggling borrowers, who gets relief.
To the dismay of some critics, Wheeler comes with deep ties to the nation’s biggest telecom lobbying groups. He has served as head of the wireless industry’s CTIA trade group and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, among the most powerful and deep-pocketed lobbying groups in Washington.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-to-nominate-rep-watt-to-head-housing-finance-agency/2013/05/01/32a1f42e-b263-11e2-9a98-4be1688d7d84_singlePage.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Better than a Repub, but still a corporate pol...
(for Wheeler, not Watt)
know nothing about the industry, practices, challenges- The dude is pretty sharp. Not as sharp as my CTO but no idiot. If nominated I personally hope he gets the FCC moving on regluations on 911 and interconnected VoIP services. Also NG9-1-1 needs to kick into high gear along with incentives for local government to get the fucking PSAPs upgraded to the 21st century.
http://news.yahoo.com/6-revealing-quotes-obamas-fcc-nominee-tom-wheeler-170102991.html
Wheeler now faces confirmation by the Senate, but that's perhaps the last place to turn for insight into what the candidate really thinks on tech policy. A far more interesting set of opinions can be found on Wheeler's blog, which he's kept since May 2007. I've pulled together some of the best clips below, but before we get there, have a look at some of the stylistic changes Wheeler's tinkered with over the years—he alternates between writing headlines in sentence-case and all-lowercase. I'm not sure what that says about him, but the quirk appears to come and go:
On net neutrality, Wheeler tried to convince network operators to back the FCC's policy:
Rules that recognize the unique characteristics of a spectrum-based service and allow for reasonable network management would seem to be more important than the philosophical debate over whether there should be rules at all. ... The wireless industry’s initial reaction to net neutrality was to question its need and warn of “unintended consequences.” Accepting the inevitability of the concept, however, and working to maximize its positive effects – from appropriate network management, to flexible pricing and even new spectrum – could be the opportunity for a big win.
On media paywalls, Wheeler had some tough love for news companies:
Clinging to the comfy economics of scarcity by moving content behind pay walls won’t bring yesterday back. ... The name of the game is how to make money out of abundance, not how to maintain scarcity.
On the privatization of space exploration, Wheeler likened NASA to a telecom monopoly:
NASA was the Bell Labs of Space. Like Bell Labs they delivered important innovations and added to our national pride. To continue a 20th Century command-and-control model in an era of distributed development is not in the best interest of NASA, however. We were once told the telephone network was so complex and essential to national security that it had to be protected from competition. Now we hear the same warnings with regard to the space program.
On reallocating spectrum more efficiently, he argued for a kind of lightly managed chaos:
Spectrum has always been allocated based on the physics of analog signals. Blocks of megahertz were allocated and then licenses were assigned within those allocations based on a single overriding purpose: to keep the signals from interfering with each other. Guard bands were often added to make doubly sure a signal licensed for one purpose didn’t interfere with a signal authorized for another purpose. ... Digital networks, in contrast, eschew perfection in favor of self-ordered chaos and from that chaos come greater capabilities and expanded capacity.
Exhibit A for 21st century spectrum planning is WiFi. Operating in unlicensed spectrum, WiFi is a cacophony of competing claims for use of the spectrum. The characteristics of Internet Protocol (IP) packets allow WiFi in a Starbucks hotspot, for instance, to operate more efficiently that the licensed spectrum on the sidewalk outside.
On Internet privacy, Wheeler proposed entrusting network operators rather than content providers or Web companies themselves:
Since Apple and Google have shown their true colors regarding consumer privacy, network operators could become the consumers’ privacy protector by not allowing such information to pass without consumer consent. It’s not that the use of information is bad – it’s whether I as a consumer have any control over the use of the information I create. A trusted wireless operator could become my information banker, securing my privacy and permitting withdrawals on my terms rather than Silicon Valley’s terms.
Wheeler hinted at his favor for 2011's failed AT&T/T-Mobile merger—not because it would've been good for consumers, or for the businesses themselves, but because it would've given the FCC more jurisdiction to regulate mobile broadband:
The government’s decision to block AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile will have more than structural repercussions for the wireless industry. If the Justice Department prevails in court the backdoor to imposing a new regulatory regime on wireless will have swung shut. On the other hand, an AT&T court win will trigger government regulation that could ultimately spread to all wireless carriers.
... An AT&T victory in the appeal of the Justice Department decision would reopen the FCC’s ability to determine appropriate public interest protections.
