The Telecom Act “succeeded in what it was designed to achieve,” but lately it’s been causing thenFCC to struggle as the agency tries to “shoehorn” Internet technology into legacy regulations based onnlegacy regulation, said Craig Silliman, Verizon senior vice president-public policy. Despite the 1996 update,n“most of the fundamental concepts” from an earlier time were carried forward, he said: The “DNA”nof the law is “railroad regulation from the 1880s.” The industry can’t expect Congress to update legislationnat the pace of technological change, he said at a Media Institute luncheon Thursday. “The answer isnto move away from large technology-specific legislative set pieces, and focus on a "technology agnostic"nframework that puts consumer protection at its center.” The FCC should take a “strategic” view of policymaking,nhe said, with four core objectives: protecting consumers, encouraging innovation, encouragingninvestment and being technology-agnostic. People in the private sector aren’t smarter than governmentnofficials, he said. "The benefit of the private sector is that 1,000 groups can try 1,000 solutions.” In contrast,nhe said, “government only gets one chance to get it right.” Silliman is “realistic” about how long itnwill take to rewrite the law. It won’t come during this Congress, but it’s “possible” there might be a newnTelecom Act in four to eight years, he said. There’s an “increasing tension,” he said, between a regulatorynand legislative infrastructure that “no longer corresponds” with the technology that’s rolling out.
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