Paul Kapustka's Blog
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February 13, 2006
Tastes Great, Less Filling -- Is anyone listening?
After watching the Webcast of the "Net Neutrality" Senate hearings last week and listening to the Webcast of the FCC's meeting in Keller, Texas, I'm left with two impressions: One, the debates are about as engaging as "Tastes Great, Less Filling;" and two, there's got to be a better way to reach a conclusion.
Scott "Rayno" Raynovich of Light Reading hits on a number of these same points in a well-written editorial today; while I may not agree with all of his let's-make-a-deal sentiments, I do think he's correct in stating that on both sides of the argument, things have gotten so strident they don't make any sense.
Take the FCC's Friday afternoon club, f'r example. On one hand you had AT&T's mouthpiece claiming the company needs to find a way to get past having to deal with all those nasty local franchise boards. On the other hand you had a rep from the franchising boards saying they welcome new entrants, but haven't heard a peep from the big telcos (until now that cable is seriously making a play for phone service).
So who's right? And how will the communications solon make up his mind? Instead of just talking past each other, isn't there any way to bring all sides together (here I am including the lawmakers and regulators) to hammer things out intelligently? Perhaps quarterly or twice-a-year regulation camps, where a wider pool of deep-thinkers all have some input on what goes on?
Or do we agree to keep the current smoky back-room implementation, with all its wonderful side effects? Is there another way?
Posted by paul at February 13, 2006 02:27 PM