[IP] FCC proceedings terminations -- I concur djf

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne@warpspeed.com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: May 5, 2007 1:57:19 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy@warpspeed.com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] FCC proceedings terminations

[Note:  This item comes from reader David Reed.  DLH]

From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed@reed.com>
Date: May 5, 2007 9:28:00 AM PDT
To: dewayne-net@warpspeed.com
Subject: FCC proceedings terminations


I have to say that as a former member of the FCC TAC, I'm saddened to  
see the termination of initiatives focused on helping the regulations  
track the rapid innovations in the radio technology field.

Politically, however, it is unsurprising.  The FCC has aggressively  
replaced all of its seasoned people over the past couple of years,  
especially its seasoned technologists.   One wonders whether the same  
process being used to replace career civil servants with politically- 
loyal Republicans has been going on there as it has been at the  
Justice Department, apparently.

In particular, the relatively modest proceeding focused on improving  
receiver quality to track what modern electronic systems are easily  
able to do would have made a huge improvement in eliminating much of  
the discussion about "interference", since much of the regulatory  
argumentation in practice is about "harm" to systems that are  
obsolete or hypothetical, such as ancient black and white tube  
television receivers designed in a way that no manufacturer would  
ever design such a system.

Implementing policy intelligently needs a core of scientific  
expertise and scientific debate and discussion.   The FCC seems to be  
controlled by economists and lawyers who do not want input from  
scientists - instead they seem to like input from high-tech corporate  
leaders, who may or may not be scientists, but definitely have points  
of view not driven by science.


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