Earlier this week, NCTA's President & CEO Michael K. Powell, spoke at one of The Media Institute's Communications Forum luncheons. Powell, a former FCC chairman, spoke about the topic of simplicity, especially as it applies to telecom regulation. Broadcasting & Cable's John Eggerton reported some of the key points made in his remarks.
"Congress and the FCC are on the verge, perhaps for the first time, of declaring that the highest and best use of spectrum is not broadcasting, but broadband," [Powell] said in a speech to the Media Institute in Washington. While a speech about communications and jobs is common these days, Powell's was linked to Steve Jobs and his mantra of simplicity. Like the less-is-more approach to Apple products' elegant functionality or rail thin TV sets, regulators should also look to pare back, he suggested.
Powell's speech touched on broadcasting, the Internet, spectrum availability, common carriage. He also addressed concerns about broadband speeds.
Powell suggested that the rap that current broadband speeds are not fast enough, no matter how fast they are, is a bad one. "Internet evangelicals constantly profess the end of the world because there is not enough capacity for some future magical set of applications that they have imagined and drive us to feel national shame because we don't measure up to some otherwise unremarkable Baltic Country," he said, as laughter erupted in the room. "If you really want to go to Latvia for broadband, go down to Dulles airport and head on out."
You can read the entirety of his remarks on NCTA's website. You'll also find references to the world-renowned designer John Maeda, Barry Schwartz's book Paradox of Choice, William of Ockham, and Talladega Nights' NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby.