Setting the Telecommunications Policy Agenda Conference

About the Conference

A top priority for the incoming President should be setting a policy agenda for the United States' information and telecommunications infrastructure. This agenda will be framed by a few critical issues, such as:

· Is the Telecommunications Act of 1996 working? Do parts or even entire sections of the current Communications Act need to be amended? Or repealed?

· Should the FCC regulate any aspect of the Internet? Internet Telephony?

· Does "convergence" require cable TV, wireline telecommunications and wireless telecommunications to be all regulated (or not regulated) in the same manner, including "open access" for ISPs?

· Should further consolidation of U.S. telecommunications and mass media companies be halted? Or encouraged?

· Do consumers still need regulatory protection? Or is competition enough?


Speaker: Hon. William E. Kennard, Chairman, FCC


Panel 1: Industry Panel

Panel 1: Industry Panel

Moderator: Larry Strickling, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, CoreExpress, Inc., Former Chief of the FCC's Common Carrier Bureau

Panelist: James Cicconi, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, AT&T

Panelist: Russell Frisby, President, Competitive Telecommunications Association (CompTel)

Panelist: Joe Waz, Vice President of External Affairs and Public Policy Counsel, Comcast Corporation

Panelist: Edward D. Young III, Senior Vice President, Feredal Government Relations, Verizon


Panel 2: Stakeholders Panel

Moderator: Eli Noam, Professor and Director, CITI

Panelist: Scott Cleland, CEO, The Precursor Group

Panelist: Henry Levine, Partner, Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby, LLP

Panelist: Hon. Bob Rowe, President, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners