Interesting People mailing list archives
speaking of... the health of telecom R&D
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 09:07:16 -0400
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 07:44:33 -0400 From: anonymous Greetings Dave, speaking of the health of Telecom R&D, The Center for Public Integrity, a great govt.-watch public interest organization, seems to target an industry a year. This time around it has focused on the FCC and govt.-related telecommunications industry abuses. The entire site is a wonderful wonderful resource (more than a few Commerce Committee Senators have cited recent reports from the site) and I have used its easily accessed data over FCC data several times. The most recent article there is on the Telecommunications Development Fund - a quasi-governmental "VC fund" that is supposed to invest in telecom R&D, and is bankrolled by the interest on spectrum auction deposits. http://www.openairwaves.org/telecom/report.aspx?aid=31 Pretty damning stuff. To excerpt : -FCC Chairman Michael Powell appointed himself to the board, raising questions as to whether it is a good idea to put the top FCC regulator in charge of a venture capital fund in the same industry he regulates. -The fund's CEO, who earned $245,000 in 2001, was involved in the John Huang China-gate campaign finance scandal during the Clinton administration. -The fund, which considers itself a private entity, actively lobbies Congress for money. -Despite owing its existence to federal legislation and auctions on the publicly owned spectrum, there is virtually no public oversight of its activities. ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- speaking of... the health of telecom R&D Dave Farber (Jun 21)