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Covad Counselor Moves To Telecom Group
by Sarah Lai Stirland
Jason Oxman starts his new job as general counsel of the Association for Local Telecommunication Services (ALTS) on Tuesday, arriving without a break after five years as assistant general counsel for Covad Communications.
Oxman said that in his new job he intends to make the role that local telecom competitors to the regional Bell firms play in furthering the rollout of high-speed Internet services more transparent to members of Congress. "My hope is to spend a lot more time telling the success stories of our members to the members of Congress," he said.
He also will work to preserve the access that ALTS members have to the Bells' telecom facilities. "We need to make sure that Congress understands that we're not asking for the sun and the moon," Oxman said. "We just need access to the facilities that we can't duplicate on our own."
While at Covad, Oxman helped negotiate a line-sharing deal between Covad and Qwest Communications. The agreement lets Covad deliver broadband services to its customers via Qwest's network and was announced mid-April.
A former counsel for advanced communications in the FCC plans and policy office and author of an FCC working paper called "The Unregulation of the Internet," Oxman studied at the Boston University law school, clerked at the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, and worked at a CNN radio affiliate in Western Massachusetts and at Maine Public Radio.
Elsewhere in the technology industry, Cisco Systems has hired Mary Brown from the law firm of Lawler, Metzger & Milkman in Washington as its new senior telecom policy counsel. Brown previously spent nine years at MCI, where her last post was vice president of federal advocacy, law and public policy.
Cisco also recently hired Jennifer Guhl as senior manager of strategic operations and public policy. Guhl is working out of Cisco's headquarters in San Jose. She joins Cisco from the tech group AeA and will manage trade issues and state and local government affairs. She will report to Laura Ipsen, Cisco's vice president of worldwide government affairs.
Wireless Experts Launch Web Log
A group of technology pundits and thinkers last Tuesday launched Wireless Unleashed, an online journal devoted to promoting wireless broadband and unlicensed uses of spectrum.
The commentators at the Wireless Unleashed Web log, or blog, are: independent technology analyst Kevin Werbach; Andrew Odlyzko, director of the interdisciplinary Digital Technology Center and an assistant vice president for research at the University of Minnesota; independent telecom analyst David Isenberg; and Clay Shirky, a consultant and adjunct professor in New York University's graduate interactive telecom program.
Werbach has testified in Congress and is a former FCC staffer. He is the author of numerous papers on spectrum policy for the New America Foundation, such as "Radio Revolution," and a co-author of "The Coming Spectrum Explosion: A Regulatory and Business Primer."
A 26-year veteran of AT&T Labs, Odlyzko is the author of academic papers on the economics of the Internet. He is researching the history of the railway industry bubble and its similarities to the telecom bubble.
Isenberg, a 12-year veteran of AT&T Bell Labs, is known for his essay "The Rise of the Stupid Network," which contains ideas that influenced writers like Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig. And Shirky's periodic think pieces provide insights into the interactions between culture and technology. His pieces often spark conversation on other blogs within hours of their publication online.
Microsoft, which has been lobbying the FCC for access to more unlicensed spectrum, funds the blog. Microsoft "shares our goal of opening up wireless capacity for new applications and services around the world," the site says. "However, all views expressed are those of the authors. Microsoft does not edit the content on this site, and we do not necessarily endorse all of Microsoft's positions."
Microsoft has been actively lobbying the FCC to make more spectrum available for operating unlicensed devices because the company is interested in the propagation characteristics of the spectrum used by broadcasters. But Microsoft also leases unused portions of licensed spectrum, such as the FM spectrum, from radio giant Clear Channel Communications for a technology called the Smart Personal Objects Technology platform that Microsoft is developing to broadcast data to consumer products such as "smart watches."
Microsoft has sponsored previous public discussions on spectrum reform. Last year, it sponsored Stanford law school's weekend conference on whether spectrum policy should be treated like property or be shared instead of licensed. Participants included Judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Lessig, Nobel Prize-winning economist and law professor Vernon Smith of George Mason University, and Werbach.
ICANN Chooses Nominations Adviser
The At-Large Advisory Committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has chosen Alan Davidson of the Center for Democracy and Technology to serve on its nominating committee. The committee is responsible for selecting three members of ICANN's board, as well as other positions. The suggestions for the appointments are scheduled to be made by early November.
In other news, Commerce Secretary Donald Evans and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick announced the re-appointment of Gilbert Lee Sandler, a senior member of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, as an official adviser to the United States on trade negotiations.
SRI International's Robert Marcus has been named interim director of the Colorado Grid Computing Initiative, a distributed computing project aimed at providing widespread computing resources for all Coloradoans.
And CongressDaily reports that Bergner Bockorny Castagnetti Hawkins & Brain will merge with another lobbying firm, the Petrizzo Group, which counts the Electronic Industries Alliance as one of its clients. Bergner Bockorny represents high-tech clients such as Hewlett-Packard and Sabre Holdings.
Tech Group Endorses Rep. Moran For Re-Election
CapNet, the technology industry lobbying group for the nation's capital region, has endorsed James Moran in his bid to be re-elected to the House.
Moran is running in Tuesday's Democratic primary for Virginia's 8th congressional district, which encompasses the areas of the state immediately west of Washington. Moran's opponent is Andrew Rosenberg, an associate at Patton Boggs and a resident of Alexandria, Va.
In a statement, CapNet praised Moran for being a strong advocate for the technology industry.
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