Assessing U.S. Broadband Access
April 6, 2011
Despite his influence as head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Larry Strickling can't shut down the Internet. He does not possess a "kill switch" or have an insider’s take on the amount of personal information Google collects.
Addressing the final class of the Harris School's Science and Technology Policy mini-course, Strickling dispelled such myths as he unpacked the realities of Internet governance, broadband availability, and net neutrality. Since 2009, Strickling has been the principle adviser to President Obama on communications and information policies, and has worked to coordinate telecommunications among all U.S. government agencies.
“There is now so much wrapped up in the Internet,” Strickling said during his March 11 lecture. “What made the Internet develop was the idea of giving all stakeholders the opportunity to participate, giving all the ability to write policy from the bottom up.”
Ensuring that the Internet continues to be an enabler of bottom-up access is a focus of the Obama administration’s communications policy. Funded by the $4.7 billion in grants under the Recovery Act, Strickling's work addresses the barriers to broadband access, namely availability and funding.
In his role coordinating with private industry, Strickling oversees the availability of broadband spectrum. Fielding a wide range of questions from students, Strickling focused most on policy solutions for an imbalance between the limited amount of broadband signals in the U.S. and the increasing number of Internet devices that need them.
He also discussed the Obama administration's plans for new regulatory mechanisms, which would give the telecommunications industry the ability to design its own code of conduct, creating more flexibility to adapt to a rapidly changing environment.
“Writing rules to bind everybody just isn’t going to work in the Internet age,” Strickling said. “With the government as a facilitator or convener, it can bring people together. If you went through traditional regulatory search, it’d take a year.”
Strickling has held roles in private industry, including a number of telecommunications companies such as Ameritech and Allegiance Telecom, and has previous government experience in the Federal Communications Committee.
Previous to his position in the Obama administration, Strickling served as the technology and telecommunications policy coordinator for the 2008 Obama for America presidential campaign. At the time, he was living blocks away from the Harris School.
-Susan Parker
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