Government will be with who controls internet traffic. Then the communicators, on Telecommunications Issues including marsha blackburn. Colorado democrat jared polis and Louisiana Republican steve police. A look at a new initiative to help veterans get Mental Health services. What we are seeing right now, embedding computational capabilities more and more into our environment. Some technologists disagree, but i personally consider the smartphones that we carry around with us are 70 of the American Population carries to be a trademark example of the internet of things. We are becoming human sensors because we are carrying around an extremely powerful computer in our pocket. It takes the form of different sensors that exist in the physical world. It takes the form of radio frequency leaders that we pass underneath when we access e zpass on the new jersey turnpike. It takes the form of sensors all around us. Certainly surveillance and cameras that collect data and send that somewhere else. This is part of the internet of things. The embedding of computers into our real world curve the Deputy Editor of the futurist magazine, patrick tucker, on the world and anticipate your every move. Tonight at 10 00 eastern and sunday night at 9 00. Online our Book Club Selection is the wrong war. Joined in the discussion. Live sunday, may 4, look for our next, indepth guest a former gang member turned author and poet. His work includes always runn ing and it calls you back. Booktv every weekend on cspan2. Is considering how to balance the needs of various internet businesses through Net Neutrality. A panel of former democratic and republican fcc chairman and commissioners discussed udo media regulation and in an event hosted by Michigan State university. They talked for an hour and a half. It is appropriate at this time that we begin, at this august gathering of people who have served at the fcc to talk about the challenges and possibly the strategies the commission might follow going forward. I am not going to introduce the panel. Instead, i will introduce the panels moderator. Dick whiley. Anyone in washington wh knows about dick wiley. He is the chairman of wileyr that has theirm, premier Communications Law practice and United States. Dick has made contributions to the elements of a policy in the private sector and the public. He servedly 1970s, for eight years with a fcc as general counsel, as commissioner, as a chairman. After that, he spent nine years chairing a committee that theses the fcc and selected standards that became the Digital Broadcasting standards we have now. For that he was given an emmy. Time butpent a lot of we do not have a lot going through the compliments and record. With that, im am going to turn it over to dick. [applause] thank you very much, professor. We are going to miss you tremendously at Michigan State and at quello center. Let me add my welcome to what i think will be an Interesting Panel Discussion featuring, as jim quello put it, some extinguished former fcc commissioners. Im the most extinguished fo all of all. In the time we have available this afternoon, we will try to get their views and some of the Key Communications issues of the day. I think it will be most interesting. I land, with the exception of the first i planned, with the exception of the first question, i will put individual questions to individual panelists. If somebody wants to Say Something about what somebody else intoned, we will take that on. A little later on, we will offer up our panelists were some friendly questions from the floor. So let me, without further ado, introduce our very, this time distinguished panel. Rochelle, on the far side of the podium, was a republican appointee during the clinton administration. Theshe later served on california state public utility commission. And also served with comsat. She is now a principal and strategic counseling, rochelle chong. I would like to get some of that counseling. Servedichael copps, who for over a decade at the fcc. One of the longer terms as a democratic member and also an acting chairman during a very important period. He served during the george w. Bush and Obama Administrations. Mike is now a special adviser to common cause and sits on the boards of free press and public knowledge. Next is susan, who is a democratic fcc appointment, appointee during the clinton administration. She now is a senior fellow at the sais center pronounced sice. Good. And a founder of susan ness strategies, a member of the board of directors of the inept company. The gannett company. Next is henry rivera. He was a democratic commissioner serving in a republican administration, that of ronald reagan. Henry hasing the fcc practice communication law. And currently, im produce a, with our firm, where he serves as a partner. For some 20 years, he has also been the chair and chair emeritus of the minority media and telecommunications council. Last but certainly not least, i appreciate never taylor tate who tate, who isylor filling in for Michael Powell who is ill. Heressioner tate is today and we very much appreciate it. She was a republican appointee to the fcc during the administration of president george w. Bush. She is now a special envoy to itu on child online privacy. Protection. And also serves on the board to the Aspen Institute and the fre e state foundation. Then i should add on a very extinguished note, i was happy fcc during the i was at the fcc during the administrations of nixon, ford, and carter. You remember those people, i hope. And was also there when jim quello first arrived. I was there when he went to his famous 8 1 2 day confirmation. His fourth confirmation on his fourth term only lasted eight minutes. Start up, folks, by asking one question of all of you. We will start with commissioner chong. If you were back at the fcc after all these years, what would be your primary policy objective . Well, actually i would have two. The first one is a medical issue of more wireless spectrum. I am in Silicon Valley. There there is innovation every day. The one thing i hear the most out of that community is how much they know things are being driven to wireless. And to small personal devices worn on your body or machine to machine technology. So that is very important. The second thing i would say because it is an area close to my heart is Broadband Access and adoption. California has spent a lot of time working on our own to bring broadband you are very rural and and to also engage in training with our low income, senior, and nonenglishspeaking communities. So we think this is an important issue because a lot of Government Services are now moving to the internet. As a result, you will become disenfranchised if you do not have an internet connection. Thank you. Chairman koptz. I would say the same damn things ive focused on when i was at the commission for those 10 years. I would focus on curing the ills of traditional media and making sure that new media serves the needs of the people in the Public Interest. Do in such things as making sure we have an open internet. It does not seem to be a path we are on right this minute. So it would be the same sorts of issues. Too, a little broader lens which would emphasize the changes that have taken place in communications. Looking at it as one Big Communications ecosystem where companies are more more alike, conservators are not doing content to content distribution. It is a different situation. Real Inflection Point as to where all of this is going. I think the decisions of the ar, theion this yer future of Internet Freedom and on the comcasttime warner cable deal will tell us a good deal about where the internet is going for the next generation. I think we have to look to a Broad Perspective like that. We can talk more about this, but i am worried about the direction in which we seem to be headed. Thank you. Commissioner ness . To quote another michi gonian, chairman dingell, who had a long relationship with mainissioner quello, my priority would be anything that congress via legislation says is my priority. So that having been said, certainly competition is a a critical element, making sure the consumer is well protected in a competitive environment, completing renovation of the begun duringwe had administration to ensure our schools and libraries have the Technical Capability to compete in the information age. Those were the two main focii for me. Commissioner rivera . Before i answer the question, i wanted, something you said in the introductory remarks caused me to say this. It was, you said you were there when commissioner quello had his 8 day confirmation hearing. He and i went through our confirmation, his next appointment we went through together. As we were waiting to go into the hearing room, he put his arm around me and he said, lets do this. Do not let them know youre scared to death. Well quiteet well. In terms of answering the question, i would like to see more minorities involved in the telecommunications space. The number of minorities involved currently is in full. Pitiful. This is the case when you consider the large percentage of the population that is minority. The fact that the United States will be a minoritymajority country in the nottoodistant future and not sure many people majority of the American Children will be minorities. So we have got to do something about this problem. That would be my policy priority. Thank you. And commissioner tate. Once again, thank you for being with us today. I called her an hour ago. I can always count on her. I also wanted to share one thought and that is that while i would do almost anything that chairman wiley calls and asks me to do, it was actually upstairs who has me sitting in this state. Because he used to say, will you promise me that you promise me that youll get my 100 my 100th birthday. Jim, i do not have on gold lamee. But i am here. I am so thrilled to be with you all and see all of my colleagues. I will be provocative and say, do we need an fcc . If i were there, when i was at i amtate level, i said, going to work myself out of a job. Things are changing so damascus drastically. Most of the state legislatures were beginning to step back and fullback authority for all of the wireless regulation in america. A lot of the economic regulation of most other companies. And so in the telecom arena. So again, with this explosion of both competition and technology in digital types of technology, what is the purpose of the fcc moving forward . I would be reflective. Then i would hope, even though i truly respect commissioner ness and mr. Dingle, i would say that behink the fcc should proactive in saying to congress, this is what we need going forward. Well, i am going to answer your question. Washington Communications Lawyer, i say, absolutely. Answer my ownto questions today, but i will dig in on this one and say that i primary preoccupation if i were back there today would be to modernize the media ownership rules which i think are badly o utmod outmoded today, particularly the metamorphosis weve seen in the marketplace last year and i think are now counterproductive. But lets move ahead to other questions. To askera, i am going you this. This one was submitted by a professor at msu. Said, from a big picture standpoint, what do we need to know that we perhaps do not know now about the evolving Communications Technologies and markets so that we could effectively serve from a policy standpoint . That thedick, i think professor touched on this in his introductory remarks i worry that regulators today do not have the appropriate strategic and regulatory tools to deal with the Rapid Developers that we are seeing in the communications space, the Rapid Technological Development we are seeing there. This is true in broadband and internet ecosystems. The scenario of a regulator chasing technology in order to craft a Regulatory Environment works in a new technological environment is not new. But i think what is new is the rapidity with which the here,logy is developing because i think it is making the conceptual framework and the regulatory tools that regulators have used in the past obsolete. They really do need to be rethought if they are going to make any sense. I think, this is true where regulators have not changed the values that they had previously embraced, prior to this rapid evolution. Takes diversity and overthetop service thers, if, does Commission Says diversity is important. Asthese concerns evaporate overthetop providers capture more market share, or is the ability of the commission to impose those concerns and requirements on overthetop providers the way to go . If they do that, and they are there are violations in that sphere, what are the commissions remedies . Also, i think the commission needs to worry about imposing no surrender the to requirements will slow innovation or investment in that sector. Im not optimistic that congress is going to be able to legislate this problem away. I think it is going to have to strokes, with broad and let the commission feel its way through. It is a real concern for me. Anybody like to comment on this question further . I think, obviously, the commission has to do a better job of keeping up with the technology, but i think if there is one thing we have learned from our experience with the internet its that no matter how dynamic a technology can be, its not necessarily a match for the momentum of the business marketplace and the ability of consolidators and gatekeepers to come through. We all thought back at the beginning of the century, my, this is something we have never seen before. It is exempt from the rolls. Rules. Remember when we had the tech bubble. Everybody thought there would be no more economic recession. Its nirvana. When we found out that was not so. Fast forward now to this internet. And i think we are beginning to see that maybe it is not so natural for us. The market needs Public Interest oversight. I think we need to be cognizant of that when we talk about the an fcc. The need for it isdid not have an fcc, supposed to be the protector of the Public Interest, a bridge to the congress to inform the congress. What would you have left . The Big Companies going around . If we take the federal fcc away, state fcc, my god, that is happy sailing for the Big Companies. God protect the poor consumer. A good example about Technology Changing rapidly, you chaired the commission during the changeover to Digital Television. They came about, the replacement standard was set in 1941 in the original standard. Already were considering another new standard, ultrahigh definition. That has only changed since 1996 when the Commission Set that standard. In a Digital World, the technology is moving rapidly. Lets move ahead and say, commissioner ness, as you look at the wheeler commission, john wheeler is the chairman of the fcc. Going to be an active time. We have seen that in the time hes served. What do you foresee coming from the wheeler commission, and what would you like to see or not see . Certainly has a full plate right now. Auction,the two sided which he has got to get right. Certainly when we served on the fcc we introduced the whole auction process. And foun how difficult it was and how carefully one had to proceed to get the auction right, to incentivize broadcasters in this instance to get back. To incentivize companies to anticipate in the auction. Spectrum. E leases on so it is a very complicated thing. He is going to do it carefully, i think. Secondly, he has got the ip transition in front of them, working to address the issue of how telcos can at some point give up the copper lines and and on to an ip system, what that means for the American Public. For companies that have proceeded to provide competition to the local telco by virtue of being able to lease capacity on their existing lines, that is an issue he has got to address. Hes doing that with some demonstration projects to see what the issues are before he goes full force. Maintaining an open internet, obviously. We are all aware of the discussions. Has exploded today with the announcement that main meeting of the commission is going to be addressing the open Internet Order that was remanded by the an approach the fcc rachelleon 706, which spent a lot of time on back when the telecom act came in 1996. In any event, looking at how he can continue to ensure competition and protect consumers and an open internet with threading through a very narrow needle. So i think he has got quite a bit on his plate. I would hope that he would complete the quadrennial review. A little bit more rapidly than it has been in the past. You really framed a lot of the things we will talk about today which is very helpful. Copps, do you foresee that the commission is going to be able to get enough spectrum repurpose from broadcasting to make the whole thing work . I think its going to be difficult judging to the reaction from broadcasters to it. I know what failure of the auction would look like. Failure would be if we took a huge swath of spectrum from big broadcasters and turned it over to big wireless. Be the that would disadvantage of consumers, innovators, competitors,