CLIC is thrilled to announce that Gigi Sohn, Counselor to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, will be keynoting our local Internet choice awards luncheon during CLIC Day on October 18th in Minneapolis, MN. In recognition of the high stakes that the coming year represents for local Internet choice, CLIC is holding a full day event focused on an Action Plan for Local Internet Choice in 2017 and Beyond as a preconference to the Broadband Communities Fiber for the New Economy conference. Ms. Sohn will be speaking on the topic of “The Future of Local Internet Choice.”
Prior to serving as Counselor to FCC Chairman Wheeler, Ms. Sohn was the President and CEO of Public Knowledge from 2001 to 2013, and also the Co-Chair of the board of directors of the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG) from 2011-2013. President Clinton appointed Ms. Sohn to serve as a member of his Advisory Committee on the Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters in October 1997.
As CLIC announced last week in our Request for Help and Action for Local Internet Choice, we anticipate that local incumbent phone and cable service providers will unleash a rash of anti-competitive legislation in state legislatures this year, emboldened by the Sixth Circuit court decision which reversed the FCC’s 2015 preemption of anti-competitive state laws in Tennessee and North Carolina. Our concerns were confirmed last week by a report that TechFreedom and the American Legislative Exchange Council are intending to push for legislation that will impair local Internet choice in various states in 2017. One of the four action steps we detailed to help us protect local Internet choice in the coming year is to attend our CLIC Day conference in Minneapolis, to share ideas and design a future strategy for protecting the authority of local communities to decide their own broadband futures. Please register here and join us in this important strategy discussion. (Registration to the full BBC conference includes free admission to CLIC’s event.)