OBAMA, CONGRESS, AND TELECOM: PREPARING FOR THE STORM

by Tom Smith, Editor of The Independent Telcom Report

It has been a little more than six months since then-Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) raised his right hand and was sworn into office as the 44th President of the United States. Ironically, this also marks the official beginning of the 2009 hurricane season. What do the two have in common?

Although telecommunications policy did not figure prominently in the 2008 presidential campaign, most political analysts thought the Obama administration would make telecommunications policy a high priority upon taking office. The Obama team has made a slow start on telecom, but the winds of policy change are blowing hard these days.

More importantly, the first six months of the Obama administration and the 111th Congress seem to have produced enough “worrisome conditions” to warrant the first storm warning of the political season for the rural and independent telecommunications industry. (Click here to read the entire Back Page and please add your response by clicking on Comment below)