NARUC Winter Meeting Stresses Economy, Reform
The economy, wireless consumer standards, universal service and FCC reform lead the agenda for NARUC committee meetings next week in Washington, D.C. A panel on broadband stimulus will feature Verizon Executive Vice President Tom Tauke. Other panels will feature congressional staffers, state regulators and executives. Former FCC Commissioner Deborah Tate will be among panelists on FCC reform. The Feb. 15-18 meeting will be at the Renaissance Washington Hotel.
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The Feb. 16 keynote will be by Frontier Communications Chairman Maggie Wilderotter. Afterward, broadband’s role in the stimulus package and the recession’s effect on broadband deployment will be examined by Stifel Nicolaus analyst and Obama transition team member Blair Levin and Moody’s Investors Services analyst Gerald Granovsky.
General topics include a Feb. 16 panel on ICC/USF reform, with Florida Public Service Commissioner Lisa Edgar; Joel Lubin, AT&T vice president, regulatory planning and policy; Jeffrey Lanning, Embarq director of federal external affairs; Robert DeBroux, TDS Telecom director of federal affairs and public policy; and Steven Teplitz, Time Warner senior vice president.
Also on Feb. 16, Lifeline/Link-Up and USF support for broadband Internet access services and devices will be the topic of a panel with Betty Ann Kane of the District of Columbia Public Service Commission; Derek Turner, research director at Free Press; Cathy Sloan, CTIA vice president for government relations; Rick Brecher, counsel to TracFone Wireless and a Greenberg Traurig shareholder; and David Hostetter, AT&T assistant vice president for public policy.
Verizon’s Tauke will keynote a Feb. 17 panel on the federal broadband stimulus package. Panelists include New York PSC member Maureen Harris; Michael Balhoff, managing partner with Balhoff & Williams; Jeff Brueggeman, AT&T vice president of public policy; Rick Cimerman, NCTA vice president for government affairs; and Dave Conn, T-Mobile USA national director for state regulatory and policy. A panel the same morning on the broadband stimulus package mechanics includes Mark Johnson of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, along with representatives of NTIA and the Rural Utilities Service.
Crafting wireless consumer protections is the subject of a Feb. 17 afternoon panel with Hawaii PUC Chairman Carlito Caliboso; Jed Nosa, assistant attorney general of Boston, Mass.; Patrick Pearlman, consumer advocate with West Virginia’s Public Service Commission; Dane Snowden of CTIA; Anne Boyle, of Nebraska’s Public Service Commission; and Betty Ann Kane of the D.C. Public Service Commission. The National Conference of State Legislatures has been invited to send a representative.
Congressional options on telecom legislation are the topic of another Feb. 17 afternoon panel with Brian O'Hara, NARUC legislative director for telecom technology and water; Alex Hoehn-Saric, Democratic counsel to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.; Christine Kurth, staff director and general counsel to Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; and Christopher Day, legislative counsel to Sen. Bill Nelson, D- Fla.
FCC reform is the topic of a Feb. 18 morning panel with Phil Jones of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission; former FCC Commissioner Tate; attorney Thomas Navin; Randolph May, president of the Free State Foundation; attorney Bryan Tramont; Brian Fontes, CEO of the National Emergency Number Association; Patrick Pearlman, consumer Advocate with the West Virginia Public Service Commission; and John Burke, a member of Vermont’s Public Service Board. - - Michael Dolan