7:10 pm Second Discussion Panel (introduction by Paul de Sa)

Ajay Agarwal, Managing Director, Bain Capital Ventures

One of the risks for an innovating wireless company is that the innovator has to go to each of the carriers and negotiate an API in order to gain access to network. This increases risk and hesitancy to invest. In the last two years with the advent of the iPhone – it is not totally open – but it is a huge leap forward. Skyhook’s technology is built into the phone to identify location. Have seen an explosion of applications that take advantage of this location based information. Yelp uses it to provide reviews of stores and restaurants nearby. Another example is UrbanSpoon; shake your phone and it will recommend a restaurant nearby. This is a great story of how an open system unleashes innovation. As ecosystems gets more open, will get more investment.

The greater the threat of regulatory uncertainty, the more we hesitate to invest.

Nabeel Hyatt, Founder/CEO, Conduit Labs

Disruptive innovation which poses a threat to other parties; we have to think about how important disruptive innovation is to the overall economy and ensure that it continues to occur.

We developed an application where we had to talk to each of the carriers. It was a new device and new use for the network. It was easy to get Wired and Oprah to talk about it; but could not get executives of carriers interested. Small number of gatekeepers make decisions about what will be on the network. Right now, in this environment, I would not start a mobile company.

Anything but neutrality ends with a small selection of services.

Amy Tykeson, CEO, BendBroadband

I see that I am the only one here actually running one of these networks.

Three major concerns with network neutrality:

Is it broken? The current regulatory environment has fueled investment over the past decade. So how is it broken? Worry about government getting involved in an industry which is so dramatically changing.

Ecosystem which continues to blur. Look what has happened to search and how it influences what people do on the web and where they go on the web.

ISPs have to be allowed to manage their networks to preserve their customers’ experience.

I worry about unnecessary rules that would increase our costs and increase uncertainty over litigation over what terms actually means. Light-handed regulation has enabled our investment to grow.

7:23 pm

Christopher S. Yoo, Professor of Law and Communication, University of Pennsylvania Law School

One of the things that concerns me is the extent to which the policy debate has been framed by a 1990s vision of the network.  The universe of users and applications and the technologies and business relationships comprising the Internet have become much more diverse.The market for the Internet in the United States may be starting to approach saturation . When you reach the flat stage of growth, the nature of competition changes. Instead of offering general products targeted at new users, service providers naturally shift their focus to using more specialized production processes to reduce costs and to providing specialized services that provide greater value to current users.

A number of technologists believe that the Internet is locked into an obsolete technology. The existence of a large installed base creates natural inertia. The hierarchical nature of the current network makes it even harder to evolve to a new protocol stack. While the current architecture promotes innovation in applications that fit within the current protocol stack, it retards innovation in applications that require a different architecture.

The nature of applications is changing. The previous world was dominated by downloads. The current world is increasingly shifting toward interactive video, which is more bandwidth intensive, less tolerant of delay and jitter, and uses protocols that will require new tools to manage congestion. The focus is also shifting from content to applications.

Historically, network providers were able to increase capacity by leveraging legacy investments. Capacity growth now requires more substantial capital investments. Carriers are attempting to use network management to reduce cost of capacity expansion by shifting capital expenses to operating expenses.

We should expect things to change. The current architecture may be inhibiting certain innovation. Lots of things the current Internet does not do well, such as mobility and multicasting.  Other functions are shifting from the edge into the core of the network, such as botnet detection.

7:29 pm
Questions and answers.

Barbara van Schewick: I did not hear anyone saying we have to keep the current architecture of the Internet . What I did hear is that there are certain factors, and these factors give you the framework in which the network can evolve.

Amy Tykeson: Innovation is happening in the network, to improve the experience of the customer. Points to DOCSIS.

Greenstein: Most important thing FCC can do: More Spectrum!

7:47 pm Adjourn