Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell cited Tuesday the convergence of traditionally separate technologies as the largest challenge facing the agency. At the fireside chat held in Cook Auditorium, Powell also discussed what he sees as the future of the internet: wireless networks andvoice-over internet protocol.
Powell emphasized the difficulties in categorizing companies as technologies, such as broadband over cable and power lines, have developed. Traditionally, the FCC has had separate divisions to handle telecommunication, cable, and information services, but in recent years these distinctions have been more difficult to make.
The FCC chairman also discussed what he saw as the "digital migration" of many electronic services.
He sees the FCC's role as providing regulatory incentives for established telecommunications companies to replace their infrastructure with voice-over-IP technology.
"We want the incentives to be toward technological innovation," Powell said.
While Powell acknowledged that VoIP and traditional phone service might seem identical to some consumers since both allow people to talk over a wire, the differences in the underlying architecture mean that VoIP can be both cheaper and more useful.
"With VoIP, a call to 911 could not only alert emergency services but send an instant message to your wife and page your doctor," the FCC chairman said.
Rather than focusing on Dartmouth or New Hampshire, Powell instead stressed the FCC national efforts to promote widespread adoption of new services.
"The internet laughs off restrictions of distance. The bit has no respect for the boundaries of New Hampshire," he said.
An audience member also asked Powell about the FCC's more vigorous enforcement of its indecency standards.
The FCC has recently begun an investigation into Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" and levied a $495,000 fine against six Clear Channel Communications stations for carrying shock jock Howard Stern's broadcast on April 9, 2003. Rather than deal with the hotly debated political issues at the root of the indecency issue, Powell diplomatically stressed that the FCC was only enforcing laws that had been upheld in the Supreme Court.
"I thought he dealt more with pragmatic issues of policies rather than the politics," Nico Buhr '07 said.
Concerns about the antiquity of the FCC's laws were also raised by Alan Johnson, Director of Technical Operations of Fast Internet on Wireless Ethernet. He described having to go through the same process to install an eight-foot pole as cellular phone companies undergo to erect 150-foot towers.
Powell acknowledged the legitimacy of the concerns of Johnson and others who questioned the chairman about the complexity of the body of legislation that the FCC enforces.
He pointed to the convergence of technology as a possible solution which would allow Congress to pass a more uniform and simpler code.
Powell highlighted the breadth of the FCC's responsibilities under the original 750,000-word Communications Act of 1934, as one of the challenges that faces the organization.
"We regulate pretty much everything that's touched by an electron or proton," Powell said.
