'We don't need the FCC': A Trump advisor's proposal to dissolve America's telecom watchdog

[SirLinksALot]

SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES

URL: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fcc-jamison-20161122-story.html

by: Brian Fung


A top advisor to Donald Trump on tech policy matters proposed all but abolishing the nation's telecom regulator last month, foreshadowing possible moves by the president-elect to sharply reduce the Federal Communications Commission's role as a consumer protection watchdog.

In an Oct. 21 blog post, Mark Jamison, who on Monday was named one of two members of Trump's tech policy transition team, laid out his ideal vision for the government's role in telecommunications, concluding there is little need for the agency to exist.

"Most of the original motivations for having an FCC have gone away," Jamison wrote. "Telecommunications network providers and [Internet service providers] are rarely, if ever, monopolies."

The FCC declined to comment for this story, but its current leadership has disagreed strongly with that analysis. Its Democratic chairman, Tom Wheeler, has spoken of an Internet service "duopoly" in much of the country that limits competition. And he has compared telecommunications to the rail and telegraph networks of the 19th century, calling for new rules of the road as the Internet becomes the dominant communications platform of the 21st century.

Wheeler has used his agency to go after allegedly misbehaving companies, proposing record-setting fines against companies for slowing down "unlimited" data plans and for billing customers for content and services they didn't ask for. He passed proactive regulations such as net neutrality to prohibit anticompetitive behavior. And, in an unprecedented step, Wheeler made Internet providers obey the same privacy rules that legacy phone companies must abide by when handling customer data.

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[Formerly Once-Ler]

More good news, more points for Trump.

[EasyAce]

More good news, more points for Trump.

If he's serious, this would actually be one of his smartest moves. There's no need for the FCC anymore,
if ever there really was. We have way more listening and viewing choices now than in the years
the agency was born. And we have the single most effective way of declining to hear or view what
we don't like. It's called a channel changer or even an off button. The government should butt the
hell out of radio and television---for openers.

As for the Internet, that might fall more properly under the aegis of the Interstate Commerce Commission
by now, wouldn't it? In which regard, the less regulation the better.

[Wingnut]

Kill it.  The FCC is toxic and no longer needed. 

Good move for a Trumpcus admin.  Take it.

[EC]

Kill it.  The FCC is toxic and no longer needed. 

Good move for a Trumpcus admin.  Take it.

Am I the only one who notices it's a pretty good move for, say, a billionaire wanting to move into the TV market too?

[HonestJohn]

The FCC auctions off parts of the EM spectrum for commercial use.  By doing so, it keeps cell phone companies from using the same frequency bands, which would cause everyone's cell phones to interfere with each other. 

If you use AT&T, they bought a certain spectrum of bandwidth, Verizon... another.  T-Mobile, yet another.

Furthermore, they keep commercial business from using military frequencies and bandwidth.  This ensures that we aren't forced to see US military personel coming into businesses and shutting their communications down when they interfere.

It's the same for broadcast television and radio. 

And they also work with the telecommunication industry so that as new technologies are developed, there can be an agreed upon portion of the EM spectrum dedicated for it's use.  The planning helps keep business from spending money on transmitters that would interfere with other, already existing, industry and military.

Useless?  Only to those that have no clue.

[Wingnut]

Am I the only one who notices it's a pretty good move for, say, a billionaire wanting to move into the TV market too?

Probably.   

[Suppressed]

Useless?  Only to those that have no clue.

BINGO.

It's exactly the type of thing I'd do if I wanted to harm America.

[Meldrew]

Useless?  Only to those that have no clue.

It will be interesting to watch this "we don't need the FCC" idea work its way through the nascent Trump administration.  You are absolutely correct that the FCC has some functions that are fundamentally critical to the safe and smooth operation of the spectrum and it will be instructive to watch Trump to see if he's deft enough to separate the necessary functions from the political or if he just abolishes the whole agency because it's popular and he can.

73

[ABX]

The FCC auctions off parts of the EM spectrum for commercial use.  By doing so, it keeps cell phone companies from using the same frequency bands, which would cause everyone's cell phones to interfere with each other. 

If you use AT&T, they bought a certain spectrum of bandwidth, Verizon... another.  T-Mobile, yet another.

Furthermore, they keep commercial business from using military frequencies and bandwidth.  This ensures that we aren't forced to see US military personel coming into businesses and shutting their communications down when they interfere.

It's the same for broadcast television and radio. 

And they also work with the telecommunication industry so that as new technologies are developed, there can be an agreed upon portion of the EM spectrum dedicated for it's use.  The planning helps keep business from spending money on transmitters that would interfere with other, already existing, industry and military.

Useless?  Only to those that have no clue.

Bingo you beat me to it. First reading the article I was wondering how out of tech touch the adviser was. Frequency allocation and distribution could be argued as the modern 'postal road' as authorized by the Constitution and are a critical component of modern infrastructure. Its scope and power can be greatly reduced but I don't even want to imagine the frequency chaos without some sort of governance. It could be privatized I suppose. Imagine if Sprint for example wanted to block out AT&T from a market so started blasting frequency interference on their 700mhz allocated frequency to block all their signals. Add to that blocking emergency services and other communication frequencies. Add to that, financially devastating telecommunication companies that lease frequency bandwidth and do so off existing contracts with the government that will be broken.

It will be a litigation nightmare at best. Currently hundreds of companies have contracts with the government for bandwidth allocation. Contracts that have to be honored.

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

According to my GPS, and confirmed on my phone using wi-fi, I live just over two miles from the Tampa Intl Airport and I see no problem with this.

[jpsb]

If he's serious, this would actually be one of his smartest moves. There's no need for the FCC anymore,
if ever there really was. We have way more listening and viewing choices now than in the years
the agency was born. And we have the single most effective way of declining to hear or view what
we don't like. It's called a channel changer or even an off button. The government should butt the
hell out of radio and television---for openers.

As for the Internet, that might fall more properly under the aegis of the Interstate Commerce Commission
by now, wouldn't it? In which regard, the less regulation the better.

What prevents me from broadcasting on 101 FM?

[Meshuge Mikey]

Am I the only one who notices it's a pretty good move for, say, a billionaire wanting to move into the TV market too?

I could have predicted this when I posted the CHALLENGE to the Donny to BUY a TV Network  ...over on FLEA REPUBLIC!!!   

[Meshuge Mikey]

BINGO.

It's exactly the type of thing I'd do if I wanted to harm America.

donny thinks were ALL too DUMB to know jack about ANYTHING...his only contacts with the less than WEALTHY ...are with his alt-wrong supporters..... who on fact don't appear to have much OF a clue about ANYTHING !

[EasyAce]

What prevents me from broadcasting on 101 FM?

A radio station that already has the band, depending on where you're thinking of doing it, unless
the station hires you to broadcast. (From the look of it there are thousands of FM stations around
the country and elsewhere who have that band, but I don't think it's occupied in every known
radio market.)

If you're in an area where no one's broadcasting on it, you could do it, assuming you have the
capital to build and operate a powerful FM radio station. Without the FCC, you'd have
a better chance of entering through a free market, assuming there aren't other regulatory hurdles
you'd need to clear. I think that's how it works, though I could be mistaken. (Sometimes stations
have a band with decimal point and advertise themselves up to the next non-decimal number; I
once worked for a pair of stations under the same ownership, one AM and one FM, and the FM
station's actual band was 103.9 but it advertised itself as "Cool 104.")

[Meldrew]

If you're in an area where no one's broadcasting on it, you could do it, assuming you have the
capital to build and operate a powerful FM radio station.

That's a lot of work. Why not just move up some, say to 108-137Mhz. 

[geronl]

More good news, more points for Trump.

Not if he wants to replace it with something worse

[edpc]

So the FCC won't let me be or let me be me so let me see....

[geronl]

We have to remember that many on the Trump Dark Side think he has the power to take over the TV networks and shut them down

[DB]

First, the FCC should have no jurisdiction over wired networks - telephone and cable for example.

Second, the FCC is very much required to manage radio frequency transmission or they would be unusable.

[Smokin Joe]

Am I the only one who notices it's a pretty good move for, say, a billionaire wanting to move into the TV market too?

No. Actually, you aren't, but nice of you to notice.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

So everyone will try to broadcast on the same frequencies? This should work out well... 


I'm small government as much as anyone else but c'mon here... some functions of the FCC are legitimate.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

I dug deeper into the story:

Jamison has argued that the FCC could be replaced by a much smaller agency charged with handing out licenses for wireless airwaves — essentially acting as a traffic cop for the spectrum over which cellphone calls, mobile data and TV signals travel.

So he's not arguing that we would allow people to broadcast on whatever frequency they wanted.


Not bad...

[Cripplecreek]

So everyone will try to broadcast on the same frequencies? This should work out well... 


I'm small government as much as anyone else but c'mon here... some functions of the FCC are legitimate.

The FCC is about the most unobtrusive of the federal agencies and actually does the job largely as intended. Only a moron would think Trump could do the job better after his repeated complaints about free speech.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

The FCC is about the most unobtrusive of the federal agencies and actually does the job largely as intended. Only a moron would think Trump could do the job better after his repeated complaints about free speech.

See my post above, he doesn't advocate anarchy, just reducing the FCC to a "traffic cop" function of regulating broadcast frequencies and that's it.


Not the worst idea I've ever heard.