Free State Offers All-Star Policy Lineup

The Free State Foundation has lined up a regulatory all-star cast for its Eleventh Annual Telecom Policy conference in Washington March 26.

The list of speakers now includes major players in the search for more 5G spectrum, the regulation of the internet, oversight of mergers, and communications policy writ large.

Among those confirmed for the conference are Federal Trade Commission chairman, Department of Justice antitrust chief Makan Delrahim, National Telecommunications & Information Administration administrator David Redl (President Trump's chief telecom policy advisor), and a majority--commissioners Brendan Carr and Michael O'Rielly--of the FCC's Republican majority.

The "ripped from this week's headlines" theme of the conference is Internet Providers and Platforms: Getting Law and Policy Right.

House Democrats launched that effort this week with a Communications Subcommittee hearing that demonstrated there is agreement something needs to be done, and soon, but not on just what that should be.

From the industry side to weigh in on the topic are David Cohen, senior EVP of Comcast, and James Assey, EVP of NCTA-the Internet & Television Association.

The foundation is a free market think tank supported my major communications companies.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.