Media Access Project Senior Vice President Harold Feld to testify before House Hearing on Spectrum Auction on behalf of Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC).
Posted: Monday April 14, 2008
On Tuesday, April 15, MAP Senior VP Harold Feld will testify at the FCC oversight hearing on the recent 700 MHz auction before the Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee of the House Energy & Commerce Committee. Mr. Feld will urge Congress and the FCC to return to a focus on the public interest rather than continue to try to maximize revenue.
“This is not about tweaking a few rules, or trying to get a public safety network built on the cheap. Unless Congress and the FCC seriously rethink our spectrum policies, and start taking active steps to open wireless networks and bring in new competitors — especially minority owned and women owned businesses — nothing in our wireless markets will change. Rather than becoming dynamic hotbeds of free speech and innovation, wireless networks will remain walled gardens under the control of AT&T, Verizon, and the handful of other members of the ‘wireless club.’ Rather than trying to sell off our public airwaves at the highest price, we should reconsider how to protect them as the natural resource they are.”
PISC is:
The CUWiN Foundation (CUWIN)
Consumer Federation of America (CFA)
Consumers Union (CU)
EDUCAUSE
Free Press (FP)
Media Access Project (MAP)
the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC)
the New America Foundation (NAF)
Public Knowledge (PK)
U.S. PIRG
Links:
Press Release
Exective Summary of Testimony
Full Testimony
Contact:
Harold Feld
Senior Vice President
Media Access Project
hfeld@mediaaccess.org
(202) 454 – 5684
Andrew Jay Schwartzman
President and CEO
Media Access Project
Andys@mediaaccess.org
(202) 454 – 5681