Of the issues that will be faced by the Tech Community, congress and the federal government in 2016. We have a round table of working reporters to talk with. Corey bennett is with the hill, he covers cybersecurity there. Kate tummarello works for politico and covers technology, and lydia beyoud is with bloomberg bna. Lydia, one of the big issues coming up are the spectrum auctions in march. What can we expect . Guest march 29th is the official kickoff date for broadcasters to relinquish some of their spectrum. Theyll be looking to either go out of business or possibly enter into channelsharing agreements with their colleagues, and a few months after that potentially thatll wrap up, and well see the wireless bidder side start, and were looking at other potential bidders as well such as comcast announced today they might also be bidding for some of that broadcast spectrum. So itll be several months of close attention on the fcc and its auction. Host and you say several months, so most of
Host this become the communicators a look at some of the issues that will be faced by the Tech Community, congress and the federal government in 2016. We have a roundtable of working reporters to talk with. Cory bennett is what the hell on the cover cybersecurity there are, Kate Tummarello works for politico and covers technology and lydia beyoud with bloomberg where she covers telecommunications. Lydia beyoud one of the big issues coming up are the spectrum auctions in march. Guest march 29 is the official kickoff day for broadcasters. They will be looking to go out of business or possibly channel sharing agreements with their colleagues and a few months after that essentially that will wrap up and we will see the wireless start and we are looking at public bidders as well, comcast announced today that they might looking for some of that hard spectrum so it will be several months of close attention on the fcc fcc. Prescod you say fcc. Host accuse a several month so most of 2016 we wil
Posted this week on the communicators a discussion of the fccs proposal to open up the settop box market to competition and what that might mean for consumers and businesses. Joining us are two guests on both sides of this issue. George ford is a chief economist and mark cooper is Research Director for the Consumer Federation of america. Mr. Cooper what do you think about what they have proposed . Guest competition the settop market. We want competition, competition, competition. We think consumers would have lower prices and more choices if we got bigger as competition to. Host george ford. Guest they asked the question whether the settop docsis competitive. Actually the first question this is their market for set top docsis and the answer really in terms of what is delivered over cable network, no because the settop boxes are a component of the network as opposed to delivering Cable Television service so its the cheapest way to do it in the most efficient way to do it. Host lets brin
Really hasnt, and we think consumers would have lower prices and more choices if we got vigorous competition into that space. Host george ford. Guest well, the fccs nprm asked the question whether the settop box is competitive, the first question x. Actually the first question is, is there a market for settop boxes, and in terms of whats delivered over the Cable Network, no, because the settop box is actually a component of the network. Thats the most efficient way to design and deliver Cable Television service, so its the cheapest way to do it, the most efficient way to do it, is so no market has developed. The companies would prefer a market if it was more efficient to do it that way. Host lets bring in lydia beyoud as well, she is with bloomberg bna where she coffers telecommunications. Thank you. So to follow up on both of your questions, chairman wheeler in introducing this proposed rule said he want withs to open up wants to open up whats been a closed market and make it more lik
Meeting of the longterm budget for not able to all of what theres a lot of pieces we can work on and hopefully we can break it into areas of interest for members on the hill to work on and i would say key is bipartisan. Each piece has to be addressed by the republicans and democrats together. I think the maya is right on target. Our history, we have never had a Budget Commission that has exceeded. That tradeoffs are too broad. Weve had pieces, however. As closer commission is probably everyones best example. Members of Congress Want to be bailed out. They wanted to have someone else make those painful decisions. We dont have that with most budget issues. One of the other examples of the property and plant and equipment for federal agencies, a proposal to the commission if it doesnt already exist to close Certain Agency field offices and properties. Thats an example of for our Something Like that might work but i think we tend to resort to much to this notion of a process fix that a con