Sunday, August 17
Last night, we kicked off our 2014 Aspen Forum in lovely Aspen, Colorado.
Congressman Scott Tipton welcomed attendees to his home state (and his home district). In his remarks, Tipton discussed the importance of tech in growing small business and the economic impact of regulations, which he estimated to cost $1.8 billion a year. Rep. Tipton also discussed the importance of broadband penetration in rural areas.
Video of his speech, and short remarks from TPI President Thomas Lenard and TPI Board Member Ray Gifford, can be found here.
Monday, August 18
The first full day of the TPI Aspen Forum began with a discussion on “The Political Economy of Telecom Reform,” moderated by TPI’s Scott Wallsten.
Former Congressman Rick Boucher, now a Partner at Sidley Austin, explained that during the 1996 telecom act, the issues were not partisan in nature. However, he identified a sticking point that seems to be drawn along party lines: network neutrality. He would like to see net neutrality dealt with separately prior to the start of any real push for telecom reform in Congress, in hopes that lawmakers will have an easier time finding common ground.
Peter Davidson from Verizon stated that there does not seem to be as much consensus among players in the communications industry as there was during the last push for telecom reform. However, he did express that the threat of Title II regulation may drive many to band together.
Roger Noll from Stanford University declared the big winners in the ‘96 Act “were people who make a living manipulating regulatory processes.” He also said such a thing was less likely to happen with any new telecom reform act because there are many more players – not just traditional wired communications companies – who know how to mobilize politically.
Philip Weiser, Dean, University of Colorado Law School stated the communications sector is going to have a lot of innovation in the next few years despite the static telecom reform act. In any new reform act, Congress should stick to high-level principles to enable ongoing innovation. In other words, Congress needs to show restraint.
Video of the entire discussion can be viewed here.
More summaries of today’s panels and tonight’s keynote dinner speech by Comcast’s David Cohen, will be posted soon. Videos of everything will also be posted on the TPI YouTube page just as soon as we can get them up.
Stay tuned!
