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<font face="Verdana">It is such a shame.<br>
<br>
I figure the ICT and Internet game for the US establishment is
really 'global' - and here the government and private sector would
stand as one. Government’s real job is to provide policy support
for global ICT/Internet corporations. More consolidation, greater
corporate power, the better .... And at the altar of this global
imperative, domestic issues of industry versus larger public
interest has been decided to be largely sacrificed. In fact, there
seem to be people in the US establishment who may really think
that overall the people of the US will also benefit much more from
consolidating 'Intellectual property plus Internet controls' based
geo-economic and geo-political advantages than they may benefit
from public interest based communication regulation. That is the
most favourable interpretation I can give to this news....<br>
<br>
A perfect confirmation, if one was needed, that ICTs and Internet
are the main axis or pillar of US's geo-economic and geo-political
plans . Time other countires see through this and learn to protect
their respective interests. and also hopefully global civil
soicety in the IG space stop providing cover fire to US's global
ICT/Internet designs that will sooner than latter extinguish all
possibilities of real freedoms and equality that ICTs/ Internet
may have promised...<br>
<br>
parminder <br>
<br>
<br>
</font>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On Sunday 12 May 2013 02:23 PM, Riaz K
Tayob wrote:<br>
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<div class="entry-date">How does MS take this intimacy into
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Weekend Edition May 10-12, 2013
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<div class="subheadlinestyle">Why the Senate Should Reject Tom
Wheeler</div>
<h1 class="article-title">Another Industry Crony at the FCC?</h1>
<div class="mainauthorstyle">by B. BLAKE LEVITT</div>
<div class="main-text">
<p>President Obama’s nomination of Tom Wheeler to head the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the height of
cynical cronyism and industry-pandering. He should not be
confirmed. Obama, in fact, could not have found a <i>worse
</i>nominee than Tom Wheeler to head this most significant
regulatory agency – one with long tentacles into all our lives
whether we know it or not. Wheeler is the last person who
should have his hands on the levers of the FCC, though he’s
been aching to do just that for decades.</p>
<p>Wheeler has far too many conflicts of interest and industry
biases to head the FCC. The FCC, regulates the nation’s
airwaves and all communications plus its accompanying
infrastructure, including all broadcasters, cable companies,
telephone-service providers both wired and wireless, satellite
communications and the Internet. FCC is at a crucial juncture
regarding decisions on new airwave auctions, further media
consolidation, net neutrality, and most importantly the
updating of the nation’s obsolete exposure standards for
radiofrequency radiation. The stakes are high. These decisions
will affect all U.S. citizens for decades to come in ways
great and small.</p>
<p>Below are 12 good reasons why the U.S. Senate* should reject
Tom Wheeler:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><b>1. Wheeler’s financial conflicts. </b> As the managing
director of Core Capital Partners LP in Washington, D.C.,
Tom Wheeler helps manage a $350 million venture capital firm
that invests primarily in the high-growth technology sector
– all with potential business involving the FCC. Founded in
1999, Core Capital has invested in over 45 companies and
partnered with over 100 others with a focus on wireless
information technology, communications, infrastructure,
security, cloud-based software, digital media and
technology-enabled service areas. Examples of Core Capital’s
investments include PureWave Networks, which develops
outdoor base stations for the 4G wireless networks; Twisted
Pair Solutions, which makes mobile communications software
interfaces, BridgeWave Communications, an outdoor gigabit
wireless infrastructure/interface company, among many
others. (See: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.core-capital.com"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.core-capital.com']);">http://www.core-capital.com</a>
for portfolio information.) Nearly all of Core Capital’s
clients rely on friendly FCC regulation, lax radiofrequency
radiation exposure standards, or more importantly no
regulation at all. In 2008, <i>FierceWireless </i>included
Tom Wheeler in their top ten all-time list of people who
helped shape the wireless industry. Wheeler is on a mission
and it goes way beyond regulating the quality of our
connectivity.</p>
<p><b>2. Wheeler’s professional conflicts/bullying. </b>Wheeler
headed two major industry trade groups: the National Cable
Television Association from 1979 to 1984, which includes the
largest US cable companies — Comcast, Time Warner, and
Charter Communications; and the Cellular Telecommunications
& Internet Association, now called CTIA – the Wireless
Association, which includes the four biggest wireless
companies — Verizon, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile
USA. CTIA, founded in 1984,<i> </i>includes not only
wireless carriers, but their suppliers, service providers,
and manufacturers of wireless data services and products.
CTIA advocates at all levels of government and claims to
coordinate the industry’s voluntary best practices and
initiatives. Their behaviors indicate otherwise, however,
and Tom Wheeler set their tone years ago. In 2010, CTIA sued
the city of San Francisco over that city’s
first-in-the-nation law that point-of-sale information
regarding a cell phone’s radiofrequency radiation level, and
its specific absorption rate (SAR) be made available prior
to sale. It also required a handout be made available saying
that the World Health Organization determined radiofrequency
radiation to be a 2B possible carcinogen. It was a simple
right-to-know law containing the same radiation exposure
information buried in company literature deep within the
box, available only after purchase. (Increasingly that
information is now available only online.) CTIA sued on
First Amendment grounds. Apparently making them tell the
truth goes against their right to obscure. The 9<sup>th</sup>
Circuit Federal Court agreed with CTIA and on May 7, 2013,
the San Francisco City Board of Supervisors revoked the law
because they did not want to open taxpayers to a potential
$500,000 penalty in attorney’s fees for CTIA. They were also
humiliated into accepting a permanent injunction against the
right-to-know ordinance just to make sure they didn’t come
back with anything similar in the future. Despite scores of
letters and petitions from across the country encouraging
San Francisco to stay the course, CTIA’s bullying worked. <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://news.yahoo.com/san-francisco-surrenders-fight-over-cell-phone-warnings-124624361.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://news.yahoo.com']);">http://news.yahoo.com/san-francisco-surrenders-fight-over-cell-phone-warnings-124624361.html</a>
And for good measure, CTIA not only sued but also moved
CTIA’s annual conference, traditionally held in San
Francisco, to Texas, thereby taking significant revenues out
of the California economy. These are all punitive tactics,
honed under Wheeler while at CTIA and continued by his
predecessors. Other states are considering similar
legislation. On May 2, 2013, Rep Andrea Boland (D) Maine
reintroduced The Children’s Wireless Protection Act. It
would require that retailers provide a flyer stating the
same information about the World Health Organization’s
classification, require that manufacturers’ manuals provide
language to avoid direct cell phone contact with the head
and body, as well as information on how to reduce excessive
exposure, if one chooses, such as limiting use by children,
keeping a phone away from reproductive organs, and operating
it with a wired headset. The bill would also require
retailers to label cell phones at point of purchase with
stickers stating the following: “This device emits
radiofrequency electromagnetic fields. Avoid direct
contact.” (Full text: : <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/bills_126th/billtexts/HP071101.asp"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.mainelegislature.org']);">http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/bills_126th/billtexts/HP071101.asp</a>)
Rep. Boland says it’s time to give Maine constituents fair
warning of the serious, potentially lethal ramifications of
cell phone use, now associated with gliomas – the deadliest
form of brain cancer, among other problems. But the ruling
in San Francisco has had a chilling effect, just as intended
by CTIA. Boland’s bill was tabled until further notice on
May 8<sup>th </sup>. Pennsylvania, Oregon, New York and
others are also considering such legislation. Hopefully
these other states will have more pluck than San Francisco.
CTIA’s aggressive behaviors are well documented and were
considerably ramped up under Tom Wheeler’s long tenure. He
will institute those behaviors in favor of industry if
affirmed at the FCC. Expect an FCC ruling that makes
point-of-sale information illegal at the state level, a lot
more litigation, and bullying.</p>
<p><strong>3. Wheeler’s political conflicts.</strong> Tom
Wheeler was a top fundraising bundler for President Obama,
raising<b> </b>more than $500,000 in 2012, and from
$250,000 to $500,000 for the 2008 campaign. Wheeler has made
at least $172,524 in campaign donations since 2007, all to
Democratic candidates and party committees. He donated the
maximum allowed to both of Obama’s presidential campaigns,
and the maximum $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee
in 2011 and 2012, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics. <i>Time Business & Money </i>called Wheeler
a “true believer,” noting that Wheeler and his wife went
door-to-door for Obama in Iowa. <i> </i>(<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://business.time.com/2013/05/02/tom-wheeler-former-lobbyist-and-obama-fundraiser-tapped-to-lead-fcc/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://business.time.com']);">http://business.time.com/2013/05/02/tom-wheeler-former-lobbyist-and-obama-fundraiser-tapped-to-lead-fcc/</a>).
His nomination reeks of a <i>quid pro quo.</i></p>
<p><b>4. Wheeler</b> <b>would increase radiofrequency
radiation exposures. </b> After decades of unchecked
wireless exposures, continued concern about safety, and
three law suits, the FCC is finally reviewing their obsolete
radiofrequency (RF) safety standards, instituted in 1996 —
17 years ago — but which even back then did not take any
studies past 1986 into consideration. Thousands of studies
have come out since that time, many indicating adverse
effects. (See <a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="http://www.bioinitiative.org">www.bioinitiative.org</a>)
This FCC review affects all aspects of modern life, from
broadcast to broadband, cell phones, wifi, smart metering —
virtually all wireless products and infrastructure. The CTIA
recently released its 2012 year-end survey. There are now
more wireless subscriber connections (326.4 million) in the
U.S. than people, and more than 300,000 cell tower sites.
That is a tremendous amount of RF exposure to the population
that simply did not exist as little as 15 years ago.
Concerns over the safety of this area of the electromagnetic
spectrum precede the CTIA and were long known in the science
community. Wheeler, as director of CTIA, oversaw a $25
million research debacle that ended in more – not less –
controversy, with virtually no research produced. The
project was widely considered in the press to have been a
“manufactured doubt” program, intended to contaminate the
database with negative studies, prevent clearer
understanding and therefore better regulation. Today
increasing research from all over the world indicates
possible cancer risks among many other physiological
problems from mobile-phone use, accompanying infrastructure,
and myriad consumer wireless products. In 2012, the World
Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on
Cancer (IARC) classified radiofrequency radiation as a 2B
possible carcinogen along with lead, formaldehyde, mercury
and DDT. Many European countries and professional
organizations now recommend the precautionary principle
regarding these ubiquitous exposures, especially for
children. Wheeler’s entire professional career rests on the
assumption that the exposures at current levels are safe,
despite mounting evidence to the contrary. The current FCC
standards are based on a high-intensity, short-term tissue
heating model that does not reflect today’s long-term,
low-level, chronic non-tissue-heating exposures found to be
every bit as biologically active. In addition to the FCC’s
narrow, ineffective focus, today’s standards do not take
cumulative exposures from myriad wireless sources
functioning at the same time, such as in the average home or
workplace. Plus the FCC categorically excludes whole swaths
of technology from review if those products meet certain
exposure thresholds. The entire model is completely
inadequate to protect the public health. Industry is pushing
to make the standards more lenient. In 2012, the Government
Accountability Office (GAO) released a report after spending
a year researching the health aspects of cell phone usage
that stated the radiation limit needed to be reevaluated. At
the time of the report, the FCC had the SAR (specific
absorption rate) set at 1.6W/kg (the amount of energy
absorbed by a unit of tissue). The FCC reevaluated the
radiation limit after the GAO report was published, and
recently published its own response. FCC states that the SAR
limit will stay the same. However, the outer part of the ear
has been reclassified as an “extremity,”<b><i> </i></b>a
designation that legally allows it to absorb more radiation
under current specifications. This is going in the wrong
direction.<i> </i> In 1999, a cheery-picking Wheeler said
“responsible scientific studies hadn’t found a connection.”
He will likely maintain that stance and the public health
could be in serious jeopardy, given the popularity of
wireless products. Wheeler would have the ability to not
only relax the standards further and grant more categorical
exclusions to the very industries he has promoted, funded,
and made a fortune from, he would also control any future
recommendations for cell phone exposures, especially among
children who are known to be more susceptible to such
damage. These factors alone should disqualify Wheeler for
the chairmanship. While at the CTIA, Wheeler lobbied hard to
make sure Congress would set no limits on cell phone use of
any kind. He’s not about to stop now.</p>
<p><b>5.</b> <b>Wheeler would erode local cell tower siting
rights and endanger public health. </b>When Wheeler was
at CTIA, he was among the industry architects who wrote
Section 704 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that
prohibited state and municipalities from siting towers based
on the environmental effects of radiofrequency radiation – a
health and safety jurisdiction long exercised at the local
level. He asked FCC to preempt all local rights in cell
tower siting; make illegal temporary moratoriums on tower
construction while communities created effective zoning
regulations; make it illegal for communities to require that
cell providers prove they are in compliance with FCC
exposure standards; make it illegal to even mention health
or environmental concerns at public hearings – against First
Amendment rights to free speech – and he pushed back
communities seeking legal redress in federal courts.
Wheeler’s appointment would be a blow to what little power
is left regarding state and local rights in their
time-honored legal zoning responsibilities to protect public
health, safety, and welfare. Wheeler would give the telecoms
the right to site infrastructure anywhere, anytime, without
local or state review. His appointment could open new areas
of litigation. Unsafe infrastructure siting potentially
endangers public health and property values and constitutes
an illegal taking against the Tenth Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution.</p>
<p><b>6.</b> <b>Wheeler would abandon landline networks. </b>This
is a critical time for FCC decisions that will affect wired
v. wireless networks and all information/entertainment/voice
delivery choice for consumers. Despite Congress’s desire for
more diversity in communications services, Wheeler in 2011
advocated for total deregulation and to let AT&T buy the
smaller wireless competitor T-Mobile USA Inc. Both the FCC
and the U.S. Justice Department opposed the merger and
AT&T abandoned the plan. It is well known that AT&T
wants to abandon its entire landline network in favor of an
all-wireless network – this at a time when safety issues are
on the table regarding wireless exposures. FCC granted them
permission to do that and AT&T is currently trying to
enact that plan in numerous states now, despite the fact
that 1-in-5 Americans rely on landline networks for voice,
DSL Internet, and 911 emergency provisions. Landline
networks, proven time and again, are far more reliable and
secure than wireless networks. Wheeler’s appointment would
accelerate, and greatly favor the wireless industry over the
harder, safer landline system. The U.S. should be favoring
fiberoptic networks like countries throughout Europe and
Asia for primary connectivity at all levels.</p>
<p><b>7. </b> <b>Wheeler would increase media consolidation.
</b>Further media consolidation could erode press diversity.
As president of the CTIA, Wheeler in 2001 pushed to
eliminate limits on how many airwaves a company can hold in
a given city. The FCC is currently considering whether to
revise the limits again. Wheeler’s confirmation could
further damage media diversity and reduce the number of
independent voices intended by Congress.</p>
<p><b>8.</b> <b>Wheeler would decrease consumer choice. </b>Wheeler
has a decades-long track record of favoring wireless over
wired networks. He will bring that bias to the critical
balance in today’s entertainment/communications market
between cabled networks and wireless companies. He will
decrease, rather than increase, consumer choice – Congress’s
clear intent — and push for deregulation at all levels,
using the federal cudgel over state decision-makers. All
wired networks will likely suffer under his bias.</p>
<p><b>9</b>. <b>Wheeler would oversee huge spectrum auctions.</b>
If appointed, Wheeler would oversee 120 megahertz of
spectrum auctions of airwaves to be voluntarily relinquished
(at a price) by television stations after those stations
went to digital formats. These are the public’s airwaves.
Originally, that frequency spectrum was promised to local
emergency first responders. But it will now be auctioned to
the major telecoms for 4-G high-speed wireless Internet
service and mobile broadband. This will bring an increased
layer of radiofrequency radiation to the environment/public
at a time when safety concerns are paramount and the FCC is
reviewing its standards. Wheeler would oversee almost one
quarter of the airwaves that Obama set as a national goal
and a huge swath of spectrum would be in the hands of a
consummate industry insider who has fought against the
public interest at every step.</p>
<p><b>10.</b> <b>Wheeler is known for cronyism</b>. On his
blog in 2011, he called AT&T’s Senior Executive Vice
President Jim Cicconi, one of the smartest, shrewdest policy
mavens in the capital and added that merger deliberations
could create a new era of wireless policy according to
Cicconi’s ideas. Wheeler will bring this bias and years of
insider relationships to the FCC – against the public’s best
interests.</p>
<p><b>11.</b> <b>Wheeler’s appointment would further lower
the bar on the ‘revolving door.’</b> Reed Hundt, the
former FCC Chairman during the Clinton Administration,
serves on Wheeler’s Core Capital Partners board of advisers
– the man whom Wheeler once repeatedly petitioned for more
lax standards and regulations when Wheeler headed the CTIA.
Now both men stand to profit from Wheeler taking the helm at
the FCC and relaxing regulations further.</p>
<p><b>12. </b><strong>Wheeler’s conflicts perfectly match
FCC’s authority</strong><b>. </b>At a time when the FCC
has pushed for increased wireless broadband in rural areas,
and Congress has awarded tax payer dollars as incentives to
large communications companies to serve those areas, Wheeler
would be in the position not only to affect the nation’s
infrastructure and radiation exposure standards but to
direct all regulatory power to financially benefit friends
and former clients. FCC regulates broadcasters, cable
companies and telephone-service providers – all of which
intersect with Wheeler’s background.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Voters should urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce,
Science and Transportation to reject Tom Wheeler. If Wheeler’s
nomination gets out of committee, voters should petition
their Senators to vote against this cynical power-grab by a
longtime industry insider and find a more suitable candidate.
President Obama needs to get the message that our regulatory
agencies are off-limits to conflicted industry insiders once
and for all. Wheeler has long had his camel’s nose under the
tent at the FCC by being on an important FCC’s advisory panel.
But it’s one thing to ask industry insiders what their
opinions/preferences are. It’s another to hand the whole
kittenkaboddle over to them.</p>
<p>Mignon Clyburn, senior Democrat on the FCC commission, will
serve as acting chairwoman until a permanent chair is
appointed. Thirty-seven U.S. Senators in <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/SenateFCCLetter.pdf"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://online.wsj.com']);">a
letter </a>urged President Obama to nominate FCC
Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel as chair. She would be the
first woman to head that agency. Rosenworcel has nearly two
decades of experience in telecommunications and media policy
in both the public and private sector and received wide
bipartisan support during her confirmation to the FCC last
year. She carries none of the overt conflicts or insider
cronyism that Wheeler does and unlike Wheeler, has a solid
background in communications law. She is acceptable to
industry and public interest advocates alike and would likely
be confirmed. Those 37 senators should be urged to stick to
their guns and to enlist their colleagues to support her. The
first step is to reject Tom Wheeler. We can — and should — do
better than this.</p>
<p><em><strong>B. Blake Levitt</strong> is an award-winning
medical/science journalist, former New York Times
contributor; author, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0595476074/counterpunchmaga"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.amazon.com']);">Electromagnetic
Fields, A Consumer’s Guide to the Issues and How to
Protect Ourselves</a>; and editor, <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/188482062X/counterpunchmaga"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.amazon.com']);">Cell
Towers Wireless Convenience? Or Environmental Hazard?</a>
(<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="http://www.blakelevitt.com">www.blakelevitt.com</a>)</em></p>
<p><em>*Wheeler’s nomination must first pass the U.S. Senate
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, chaired
by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D) West Virginia, before going
to the full Senate for a vote.</em></p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
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