From: Lars Poulsen <[email protected]> Subject: Re: AT&T/SBC merger
A few of the comments have been critical of Reed Hundt's performance as FCC chairman. I must respectfully disagree. Unlike most of his predecessors in the office, Reed Hundt has been more of a visionary activist than a faceless lawyer. I have applauded his performance, not only because I share his and vice president Gore's belief that the modern telecommunications infrastructure, operated in managed competition is a vital national asset, but also because he has been a friend of the Internet, protecting the interests of the mostly small dynamic, often family-owned Internet service providers against the attempts of the larger telcos to manipulate tariffs to eliminate this upstart competition. Certainly, telcos have been critical of the regulatory oversight from chief Hundt and his commission. They have been disappointed that they could not badger Hundt into backing the corporate line that "more profitable telcos promotes investments that are good for the country", which they used so successfully to influence Congress to rewrite the Telecommunications Act to their liking behind closed doors. But Hundt protected the Internet Service Providers from being forced to pay per-minute access charges to receive phone calls. Hundt believed that there is such a thing as managing national resources for the public good (as distinct from maximizing corporate profits). Judge Harold Greene (who brokered the consent-decree in the AT&T anti-trust suit, and thereby created the new, competitive telephone system) was blasted by many in the industry as well as many political observers, who accused him of destroying the one true integrated system, but he had such a clear vision, and such a good understanding of the technology as well as the economics of the industry, that ultimately he succeeded in creating a new system, and he was such a stabilizing force, that there was no real need to rewrite the law, until his retirement was imminent; so too, I believe we shall ultimately remember Reed Hundt as Harold Greene's successor. As the Internet becomes a mainstream technology, it will need government regulation. Such regulation is needed to curb the junk e-mail problem, to broker reasonable interconnects (who pays settlements to whom), and to create an ordered domain name system to serve the USA. Such regulation must be implemented with an understanding of the technology and of the technical culture that has grown up around it, and which in itself an important resource. With Reed Hundt gone, I pray that his successor will be worthy of the task. / Lars Poulsen [email protected] +1-805-562-3158 OSICOM Technologies (Internet Business Unit) (formerly RNS) 7402 Hollister Avenue Manager of Remote Access Engineering Goleta, CA 93117 Internets designed while you wait
