The Free State Foundation, a non-profit Maryland-based think tank, commemorated the release of their latest book “New Directions in Communications Policy,” with an event featuring many of the key players in the national broadband dialogue.  The event was held at the National Press Club and kicked off with a keynote address from Blair Levin, the Executive Director of the FCC’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative.  Levin urged innovative solutions and echoed many of the themes in his recent blog posting, where he touts the need for more spectrum, a greater focus on adoption and the need for resources beyond the federal government’s existing broadband grant programs to reach unserved pockets of the country.

A panel of scholars followed his address diving deeper into issues like competition, network management and universal access.

Christopher Yoo, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, captured the room with his unique analysis of net neutrality after the Comcast case.  Yoo’s premise is that the court’s finding of a case-by-case approach to reasonable network management will benefit consumers, industry, and ultimately innovation.  Yoo believes that with the changing demands of networks (due to bandwidth-heavy applications) consumers will enjoy paying only for the enhanced services that they need and industry will work with policies that keep business options open.

FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker closed out the event with her first speech in her newly appointed capacity.  Baker displayed excitement when talking about the communications revolution and the role it has in growing our national economy.  She believes that consumers will benefit most from investment, innovation and competition.  She believes in incentives and said the FCC must be cautious as any regulatory change the commission makes may disturb the climate which is delivering such progress and innovation today.

Commissioner Baker also revealed some of her policy priorities:

• Facilitate broadband in order to enable technologies for health, energy, public safety and the economic growth of America.
• Support targeted government involvement where the market does not provide broadband to remaining unserved communities.
• Gather granular and reliable data to properly execute and achieve goals with a minimum of intrusive regulation.

Click below to watch full archived footage of the event.

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