Open Access and the New Net Neutrality forum at SCU June 12, 2008

Open Access and the New Net Neutrality forum June 12 at SCU

This forum was organized by the Media Access Project in collaboration with the Broadband Institute of California (Allen Hammond of SCU's Law School and Program Director at the Center for Science, Technology, and Society is BBI's
executive Director).

The day was organized into two panels. The first one focused on "What does Net Neutrality mean now?" and the second on "Spectrum policy after the 700 MHz auction."

In the first panel, Richard Whitt (senior policy counsel at Google), Ronald Yokubaitis (Chairman and CEO of Data Foundry), and Jay Monahan (general counsel at Vuze, Inc.) argued for a regulatory and policy framework that ensures net neutrality and an "equal playing field" that does not discriminate by type of users or type of media consumed. On the other hand, Richard Bennett (network architect) and George Ou (Technology for Mortals) criticized the current legal framework and suggested that all networks need to have intelligence built in, not only on the nodes, so that bandwidth can be more equitably shared rather than "hogged" by a small percentage of heavy users. Parul Desai of the Media Access Project served as the moderator and had her hands full given how passionate each participant feels about their positions.

In the second panel, moderated by Harold Feld of MAP, the participants were Coleman Bazelon (Principal, the Brattle Group), Gregory Rose (Economist, Gregory Rose & Associates), Carolyn Brandon (CTIA, the wireless industry's
trade association) Marc Berejka (director of public policy at Microsoft), and Joanne Hovis (president, Columbia Telecommunications Group). Participants' views on the outcome of the 700 MHz differed significantly,with Brandon and Bazelon calling it largely a success and the others criticizing it for its lack of concern for the public benefit. In particular, Hovis was very articulate about the fact that while the conversations are focused mainly on the benefits for urban dwellers, there are large numbers of rural and poor communities in the United States that are grossly underserved by the current telecommunications behemoths. She also agreed with Berejka that the unlicensed use of so-called "white spaces" (the interstitial frequencies between analog television signals and other bands) could be very useful in supporting innovation by allowing municipalities to provide services for themselves and their constituents.

The issues raised by this forum are very dynamic and the consequences of the policies and practices at issue very far ranging. This helps explain in part that why several Silicon Valley companies such as Cisco, Google, eBay and others are keeping a close eye on these developments. MAP's next event to follow up on this conversation will take place June 25th in Washington, DC with the title ""The Future of Innovation‹Media and Technology Options for the Next President."

The Center is grateful to Al Hammond for bringing this opportunity to Santa Clara. We will be looking ahead to linking the issues discussed here with Center activities taking place in the area of value-centered design of
information systems and technologies.

Pedro Hernandez-Ramos