Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) Student Report
Tue, 10/27/2009 - 15:44 — ptozier
TPRC Conference - September 2009
ITP’s own Professor Doug Sicker served as Chairman of the 37th Annual Telecommunications Policy Research Conference held at the George Mason School of Law this past September 2009. By all accounts the 2009 TPRC was a resounding success with a record number of participants and governmental representatives. This year ITP sponsored ITP student, Sonal Lamba Malhotra’s attendance at the event after she won a policy paper contest in August. Please see Sonal’s report about her conference experience below.
Sonal Lamba , ITP Student and Professor Doug Sicker at the 2009 TPRC Conference
TPRC Summary
By: Sonal Lamba Malhotra
In August 2009, I entered a paper competition by the Interdisciplinary Telecommunication Program. The prize was sponsorship to attend the 37th Annual Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) in Washington, DC. TPRC is an annual conference on communications, information, and Internet policy that brings a diverse, international group of researchers from academia, industry, government, and nonprofit organizations together with policy makers. This year the conference was held at George Mason Law School and was exceptional for two reasons. Firstly, ITP Professor, Doug Sicker, chaired the conference and secondly, it had record policy makers participation.
During the conference, I had the opportunity to attend different panels discussing various policy issues facing our regulators. On the first day of the conference, I attended a panel on Special Access, which was moderated by the ITP Professor and Executive Director of Silicon Flatirons Center, Dale Hatfield. Special Access issue has been pending with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for many years and is becoming more relevant as it is a critical component of broadband ecosystem. In this issue, wireless carriers like Sprint complain that the Special Access prices charged by incumbents like AT&T, Verizon are very high which impairs their ability to provide broadband to consumers. In this panel, there were presentations from different advocacy groups presenting their viewpoint on this issue. I attended two panels on Network Neutrality, which is the top issue facing the FCC. Just few days before the conference, FCC Chairman Julius Genchowski announced plans to initiate a Rulemaking process on Net Neutrality. In these panels there were presentation of papers from technical, economics, and policy standpoint. I also attended a panel on Universal Service Fund, which had presentation of papers, on various ways to reform the Universal Service Fund. One paper that I really liked examined the experiences of several developing countries like Asia, Africa, and Latin America with Universal Service Funds. There was a special panel with speakers from members on President Obama’s Innovation Team, which talked about innovation initiatives of the new administration and its benefits to the Telecom industry. I am taking Telecommunications Law and Policy course this semester, this conference was an opportunity to take what I learned in the classroom about policy and law and apply in a real world scenario.
My academic plans include a specialization in the regulation/policy aspect of Telecommunications. Attending this conference provided me the insight and knowledge needed to successfully excel in my field. I offer my sincerest thanks for the generous support of Professor Tim Brown, Professor Doug Sicker and Elizabeth Golder for providing me this great opportunity.
