Last Thursday, Sascha Meinrath, Director of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative presented on the FCC  Broadband Workshop on Technology and Wireless. The lone public interest voice on a panel dominated corporate representative, Mr. Meinrath argued:

"Instead of fostering interconnectivity of networks and interoperability of devices, the forces of command-and-control seek new ways to capture market share and generate path dependencies to limit customer churn."  Mr. Meinrath added that these companies are focused not on building next-generation networks but instead "maximize billable moments--commoditizing every new space and function possible."

Addressing the concern that too few other public interest representatives were invited to participate, Mr. Meinrath expressed the need for transitions to next generation networks to include a diversity of voices:

"Leadership from Congress, from private industry, and from the public interest sector is desperately needed to ensure that these necessary transitions are graceful instead of unmanageable and liberatory instead of harmful."

Mr. Meinrath also challenged that the "onus lies with the FCC to ensure that the future of wireless communications lives up to its democratic potential."

Mr. Meinrath's testimony is available at: http://www.newamerica.net/publications/resources/2009/prepared_testimony_fcc_wireless_technology_workshop

A video is available courtesy of the FCC at: http://www.broadband.gov/ws_tech_wireless.html

For interview requests, please contact Kate Brown at 202-596-3365 or brown@newamerica.net.

About the Open Technology Initiative
New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative formulates policy and regulatory reforms to support open architectures and open source innovations and facilitates the development and implementation of open technologies and communications networks. For more information, visit, http://www.newamerica.net/programs/oti.

About the New America Foundation
The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States.