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/ 04.21.2010 12:00AM
Levin Leaves FCC for Aspen Institute
WASHINGTON: The man who led the development of the Federal
Communication Commission’s broadband plan, and has generated his share of
controversy, is leaving the agency.
Blair Levin, executive director of the broadband initiative at the commission,
will become a communications and society fellow at the
Aspen Institute as
he leaves the FCC on May 7.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski praised Levin’s work, saying it is “beyond
measure.”
Before his broadband plan effort at the agency, Levin co-headed the Technology,
Innovation & Government Reform Policy Working Group of President Obama’s
Technology Transition Team along with Genachowski.
Levin, an attorney, served as chief of staff to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt from
1993 to 1997, where he oversaw the implementation of the 1996
Telecommunications Reform Act. He was also a managing director at the
investment firm Stifel Nicolaus.
Levin follows former FCC Chairmen Kevin Martin and Michael Powell, who both
went to the Aspen Institute following their tenures at the commission. Powell
is now head of Broadband for America, an industry group the
membership of which
includes entities as diverse as Verizon and the Livestock Marketing
Association.
Powell recently spoke with
The Washington
Post’s Cecilia
Kang about reclassifying broadband as a Title 2 service so the government
might further regulate it. Powell, Chairman from 2001 to 2005, defended his
decree that it should be a Title 1 service. The issue arose after a court
recently ruled that the FCC could not dictate how Comcast managed its broadband
network.
“I hate the idea of Title II for broadband. I think we would really regret it
because for a regulator versed in what it means, it means thousands and
thousands of pages that would fall into this space and we would spend our
lifetime trying to clean it up. And the real worry is that we will enter
another prolonged period of litigation,” Powell said.
--
From Radio World with additional information
from TVB
Related:
Read Levin’s January speech “Wired for Social Justice” to the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council's Broadband and Social Justice Summit.
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Thursday 12:00AM
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