The Jeff Pulver Blog: Senate Commerce Committee Confirmation Hearing for Michael Copps and Debbie Tate:

« Y! Yawn. Phone-Out/Phone In...Just another case of Replication without much Innovation: | Main | Om, Since You Ask, Here Are My Initial Thoughts on the PC-to-PSTN Price War: »

December 13, 2005

Senate Commerce Committee Confirmation Hearing for Michael Copps and Debbie Tate:

With Kathleen Abernathy leaving the FCC, the Commission is down to three Commissioners, and only one is from the majority party. The Senate is set for FCC confirmation hearings today to consider the nomination of Deborah Taylor Tate (Director of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority) and the renomination of Michael Copps (who needs to be reconfirmed for another term at the FCC). Even if both nominees are confirmed, the FCC will still be short one Commissioner and will continue into the Spring without a third Republican.

I hope to find some time today to listen in on the Hearing, to get a better sense for where the FCC might be going over the next year on IP-based communications and other Internet related issues.

As I have indicated in a previous blog, Debbie Tate has been an engaging and intelligent member of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority and has tried hard to engage the VoIP community and to incorporate the needs of the industry with the demands of a relatively rural state. Just yesterday, Director Tate held a discussion in Nashville about the role of VoIP within Tennessee. We were invited to participate but were unable to make it to Nashville. In any event, many similarly situated states have not had Director Tate's drive to recognize the value that IP technology could offer rural America. I trust she will bring the same wisdom to the FCC in the likely event that she is confirmed and moves up to DC.

As for Commissioner Copps, he has proven over the past year to be a most essential force for the IP-based communications industry. It was due to Commissioner Copps' initiative that the FCC adopted net neutrality principles within the context of the FCC's Wireline Broadband proceeding; and it was because of his perseverance that the FCC added some teeth to those principles within the context of the SBC/AT&T and Verizon/MCI mergers.

I must confess that I had some early concerns about Commissioner Copps because of his dissent to the Pulver Order in 2004. But those were different times, and I now appreciate Commissioner Copps' legitimate concern that Title II remains a vehicle to ensure that no one may interfere with the user's control over her own communications experience. One clear means to ensure user empowerment would have been for the FCC to be very careful when removing Title II obligations imposed upon those that control the communications delivery media. But, with the Wireline Broadband Order, the VoIP for E-911 Order and the CALEA for VoIP Order, that ship has sailed.

I had no idea at the time that the Pulver Order was adopted that every traditional telecom carrier would attempt to fit itself within the definition of an "Information Service" to get out from under any pre-existing Title II Telecom Regulations. To me, Title II should still apply to the telecom transmission media that deliver Internet applications (including voice applications), but I would not use Title II (or even Title I) to impose regulations upon the Internet applications that ride on telecommunications networks.

I, however, do applaud Commissioner Copps for his leadership and efforts to ensure that the bottleneck facilities used to reach the Internet are not misused to deny consumers the ability to maximize their communications and Internet experience. I trust Commissioner Copps will continue to be a leading advocate for net freedom as the battle over consumer control and consumer empowerment evolves.

Tags: voip, FCC, Michael Copps, Debbie Tate, Jeff Pulver