DATE
Thursday, January 25th, 2018 – 2:00 PM EDT
VIEW
Tech, Media, and Telecom in 2017: The Year in Review and Some Predictions for 2018
TOPIC
2018 promises to be another year of continued evolution and convergence in the technology, media and telecoms sectors. The Digital Policy Institute invites you to a video webinar discussion featuring a panel of industry analysts, regulatory experts and policy wonks as we look back at the most important developments of 2017 and predict what’s ahead for consumers, technology and media companies and the economy in 2018.
We’ll address:
- The future for consumer privacy after the repeal of the FCC’s rules on consumer information held by ISPs and with now greater reliance on the FTC;
- State efforts to update infrastructure policies and cell siting rules to facilitate the deployment of 5G networks;
- The connection between 5G and wide-ranging innovations such as autonomous vehicles;
- The impact on network investment of the federal government’s return to a light-touch regulatory approach towards broadband regulation;
- Efforts by the FCC to make additional high-band spectrum available for mobile broadband networks;
- New television transmission standards;
- Media ownership and operational rules in the digital age.
PANELISTS AND MODERATOR
- Roger Entner, Founder & Lead Analyst, Recon Analytics
- Howard N. Liberman, Partner, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP
- Debra Berlyn, President, Consumer Policy Solutions and Executive Director, Project GOAL (The Project to Get Older Adults Online)
- Moderator: Barry D. Umansky, Senior Fellow and Senior Policy Advisor, Digital Policy Institute
PANELISTS AND MODERATOR BIOGRAPHIES
Roger Entner
Roger Entner is the Founder and Lead Analyst of Recon Analytics.
He is known around the globe as one of the most respected telecom experts. Over the last decade he has been frequently quoted by the world’s most prestigious media outlets. In the last year alone, he was referenced more than 2,000 times. In addition, Roger’s research has been cited in six Annual Mobile Wireless Competition Reports to Congress, making him one of the most quoted analysts in the history of these highly influential reports. His research around wireless spectrum has been cited by the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors. Among his influential work over the last two decades, Roger has written four reports for CTIA documenting the increasing impact of the wireless industry on the US economy. Roger has a weekly video show with Wireless Week, and is a regular contributor to Fierce Wireless as well as commentator on RCR video shows, where he analyses and comments about customer and industry trends in the connected world. At age 45, Heriot-Watt University bestowed on him an Honorary Doctorate of Science for his contributions to the advancements in research of the telecommunications market making him one of the youngest Heriot-Watt University graduates to receive this honor. Roger has also testified before Congress on the impact of the wireless industry on the US economy, the demand for spectrum and issues around the deployment of wireless infrastructure.
Before starting Recon Analytics in January 2011, Roger was the Senior Vice President, Head of Research and Insights for the Telecom Practice of The Nielsen Company. He came to Nielsen through the acquisition of IAG Research, where he headed the telecom business unit. Roger made IAG Research products a core component of how all nationwide wireless operators are buying their TV advertising time as well as determining which and how long advertising spots are aired. Roger also worked on new product development of ad effectiveness services for mobile advertising and radio advertising. Before was Ovum’s Vice President for North American Telecoms, expanding Ovum research practice in North America by more than 600% in two years to include all major operators and vendors. Before that Roger ran the Yankee Group’s US carrier practice launching Yankee Group’s Wireless Carrier Summit conference series with C-Level keynote speakers from major operators and vendors. Roger also launched the Yankee Group’s first quantitative product line. He was also Strategic Marketing Manager for LCC, a wireless design and deployment company and Managing Analyst for Markowitz & McNaughton, a decision support consulting firm.
Roger is the President of the American Friends of Heriot-Watt University, the official fundraising arm of Heriot-Watt University in the United States. He has been an advisor to the National Science Foundation and currently active on the advisory board for Danal Inc. Roger is also a member of the American Council on Germany.
Roger received a Bachelor of Arts in Business Organization, from the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, and Master of Business Administration from the George Washington University in Washington, DC and an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the Heriot-Watt University.
Howard N. Liberman
Howard Liberman is a partner at the Washington, DC office of the law firm Wilkinson Barker Knauer. He began his career as an attorney with the Federal Communications Commission’s Cable Television Bureau over 40 years ago.
Mr. Liberman later moved to the private sector where he has represented broadcasters (television and radio, commercial and noncommercial), cable TV operators and other FCC-regulated businesses in matters relating to regulatory proceedings, transactions, strategic planning and litigation, including FCC hearings and appeals of FCC decisions. He also advises lenders and investors in the communications and telecommunications industries.
Mr. Liberman’s practice also focuses on the day-to-day legal/business issues of broadcasters and other media companies beyond FCC matters, including contracts; music licensing and other intellectual property issues; contests and promotions; defamation and First Amendment issues; and general corporate matters.
He has been an active member of the Federal Communications Bar Association for many years. He has served as Co-Chair of the Association’s Mass Media Committee and Transactional Practice Committee.
Debra Berlyn
Debra Berlyn is the President of Consumer Policy Solutions and serves as the Executive Director of the Project to Get Older Adults onLine (Project GOAL).
Prior to launching Consumer Policy Solutions, Ms. Berlyn was Senior Legislative Representative in the Federal Affairs Department of AARP, responsible for all communications and energy matters. Ms. Berlyn was co-founder and Executive Director of the Competition Policy Institute, a non-profit organization, from 1996 to 2002. Immediately prior to creating CPI, Ms. Berlyn served as the Executive Director of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA).
Ms. Berlyn served as Chair of the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee for nine years and continues as a member, and is a member of a Working Group of the FCC’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Consumers League and the Future of Privacy Forum. Ms. Berlyn also serves on the Program Committee of the TPRC (Telecommunications Policy Research Conference).
She represented AARP on the digital television transition coalition and has worked closely with national aging organizations on several Internet issues, including online safety and privacy concerns. Ms. Berlyn is a seasoned veteran of telecommunications and consumer policy issues and an advocate for consumers of technology services.
As a national voice on the issues of broadband adoption, consumer’s use of technology, online safety and privacy, she has been a guest on radio and television programs and has been published in media sources across the country.
Barry D. Umansky
Barry D. Umansky is a professor in the Telecommunications Department at Ball State University. He formerly held the Edmund F. and Virginia B. Ball Chair in Telecommunications at Ball State. Umansky is a communications lawyer who has represented broadcasters and other electronic media and has had an extensive communications career in government and industry.
After work at radio and TV stations in the Midwest during college and law school, he served for seven years as an attorney doing communications policy work at the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) in Washington, D.C. Mr. Umansky then became Deputy General Counsel with the National Association of Broadcasters (“NAB”) in Washington, D.C. During his twenty years at the NAB Legal and Regulatory Affairs Department, he had responsibilities for radio and television new technology and spectrum allocation issues, environmental and land use issues, station licensing and many other regulatory matters of key interest to broadcast stations and networks.
He edited and co-authored many NAB publications intended to provide legal guidance to broadcasters. At NAB he also produced the legal and regulatory sessions at major NAB conventions and meetings, as well as traveled the country extensively while offering legal/regulatory compliance seminars for broadcast groups, state broadcasters associations and individual broadcast stations.
While at NAB, Mr. Umansky also served as a member of the boards of the former Washington-based Electromagnetic Energy Association (“EEA”) and the National Antenna Consortium. For several years he also served as president of the EEA.
He has been an active member of the Federal Communications Bar Association (“FCBA”), including service as co-chair of its Mass Media Practice Committee. Umansky also served on the FCBA Foundation board for several years. He is a Past-President of the Kansas Association of Broadcasters Foundation, where he still serves as a board member. He also is a former board member and Past-President of the Broadcast Education Association, based in Washington, DC.
In April 2012, he was appointed by the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission to serve on the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee (“CAC”). In March 2013, he was reappointed to that federal advisory committee and was named co-chair of the CAC’s “Internet Protocol Transition Working Group.” In May 2015, he again was reappointed to the FCC’s CAC and was named co-chair of the CAC “Media Working Group.” In August 2017, he received his latest appointment, by the FCC Chairperson, to CAC membership.
In addition to undergraduate and graduate teaching responsibilities at Ball State, Mr. Umansky is faculty advisor to two Ball State student organizations: “Station WCRD” (for which he obtained its FCC license and has maintained federal compliance through station oversight and the filing of several applications and reports at the FCC) and the “Pre-Law Interest Group.” The Pre-Law Interest Group provides guidance to undergraduate and graduate students considering law school.
Additionally, he is a senior fellow and the senior policy advisor with the Digital Policy Institute (DPI), a communications research and analysis “think tank” located at Ball State. DPI regularly produces white papers and op-ed pieces on communications policy matters. Umansky produces and moderates, several times each year, DPI’s national video webinars.