Q. What are the Skype TechPolicy issues?

I'm heading out to a technology public policy conference today. Tuning my ear to listen for new issues. Some already on the Skype plate...

• Mobile Carterfone – freedom to use the device of your choice on a mobile network
• Mobile Net Neutrality – US mobile carriers are blocking Skype voice calls from data services. See iPhone and Windows Mobile store policies written by carriers.
• Net Neutrality – ISPs banned Skype. Should that be OK?
• P2P Freedom – As Skype shows, p2p has legitimate uses yet copyright industry groups draft laws banning the technology.
• Rural Access – Skype users needs cheap, capacious, ubiquitous, expandable broadband to the home and office.
• Telco Antitrust – The big mobile, landline, and cable carriers are very profitable, even in a horrid economy. Evidence of undue market power?
• Privacy – The US government is funding research to intercept Skype calls and uncover your Skype contacts
• E911 – When does Skype become responsible for helping people call emergency services?
• Unwanted Attention – Telemarketing, spam, spim, spit – we hate it all. What is government's role?
• Carbon Footprint – Can Skype-like communication lower our personal and national environmental impact? What can Skype engineers do to lower it further?

See today's Free Press analysis Dismantling Digital Deregulation: Toward a National Broadband Strategy (pdf). DDD suggests the US:

• Review every major FCC decision since the 1996 Act and reverse those that failed to promote broadband competition, openness and access. Congress should aid this process with a series of oversight hearings.
• Develop a data-driven standard to identify local areas where broadband providers are abusing their market power, and use the tools in the 1996 Act to promote competition.
• Expand and codify the FCC's "Internet Policy Statement" into permanent Net Neutrality rules. Congress should pass a Net Neutrality law to place these protections in the Communications Act.
• Reclassify broadband as a "telecommunications service," which will allow the FCC to promote competition by reinstating open access rules where appropriate.
• Transition the Universal Service Fund from supporting telephone service to supporting broadband infrastructure. Congress should aid this transition through oversight and legislation to provide a clear path for FCC action.
• Produce an honest assessment of whether broadband is being deployed to all Americans in a timely fashion, as required by the 1996 Act.
• Conduct a thorough review of policies governing competition and pricing in the "special access" and "middle-mile" or "enterprise" markets -- the broadband lines that connect cell phone towers and local area networks to the Internet.
• Open more of the public airwaves to unlicensed use and promote shared spectrum for both low-power urban and high-power rural uses. Congress should instruct the FCC and the NTIA to identify spectrum that could be utilized.

Offline for a the afternoon, the better to pay attention and mingle.

tags: public policy, skype, carterfone, Mobile Net Neutrality, iPhone, apple, microsoft, netneutrality, p2p, fcc, access, broadband, monopoly, antitrust, privacy, e911, telemarketing, spam, spim, spit, deregulation, competition, openness, spectrum, NTIA

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