SpectrumTalk

THE GENESIS OF UNLICENSED WIRELESS POLICY :

An Information Economy Project Conference

George Mason University School of Law
3301 Fairfax Drive, Arlington, Virginia

Friday, April 4, 2008

Charles Jackson, Conference Coordinator
Thomas W. Hazlett, IEP Director
Drew Clark, IEP Assistant Director

Unlicensed wireless has become an industry, with hundreds of millions of radios in use today. These devices range from short-range wireless computer keyboards to microwave links with ranges of several miles. Among the most well known are wireless local area networks (WLANs) often referred to as Wi-Fi or 802.11.

This conference will review the development of unlicensed wireless policy with the goal of assisting scholars in understanding how the current unlicensed policies came into being. It looks at the interplay between regulation and innovation and examines policy initiatives from industry and from inside the government. It also reviews technological and market responses to changes in regulation.

The speakers include several individuals who were deeply involved with the development of unlicensed policy and of standards and devices that operated under that policy.

This conference should prove informative to people interested in either spectrum policy generally or unlicensed wireless in particular. It may also interest students of regulation, innovation, or, more widely, law and economics.

8:15 a.m.	Informal Breakfast Welcome: THOMAS HAZLETT, George Mason University School of Law (Bio)
8:30 a.m.	Morning Keynote: "Wi-Fi and Bluetooth - The Path from Carter and Reagan-era Faith in Deregulation to Widespread Products Impacting Our World" MICHAEL MARCUS, former FCC Engineer and Policy-Maker (Bio) Introduction by MARK FOWLER , Federal Communications Commission Chairman, May 1981 - April 1987
9:15 a.m.	Panel 1: Policy Development Moderated by CHUCK JACKSON, Adjunct Professor, George Washington University, (Bio) "Unlicensed to Kill: a Brief History of the FCC Part 15 Rules" KENNETH R. CARTER, Senior Consultant at wik-Consult GmbH (Bio) "Unleashing Innovation: Making the FCC User-Friendly" STEPHEN J. LUKASIK, first Chief Scientist, FCC (Bio) "Grazing on the Commons: The Emergence of Part 15," HENRY GOLDBERG, (Bio)
10:30 a.m.	Break
10:45 a.m.	Panel 2: Market Development Moderated by ANTHONY TOWNSEND, Institute for the Future (Bio) "History of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) in the Unlicensed Bands" KEVIN NEGUS, engineer and venture capital partner, and AL PETRICK, (Bio) "Unlicensed: The case of Wi-Fi" ING V. HAYES, and DR. IR. W. LEMSTRA, (Bio) "Broadband Access in Unlicensed Bands for Fun & Profit" TIM POZAR, (Bio)
12:15 p.m.	Lunch
	Luncheon Keynote: "What Went Wrong with U-PCS" DEWAYNE HENDRICKS, (Bio)
1:30 p.m.	Concluding Remarks THOMAS HAZLETT
1:45 p.m.	Adjourn

When: Friday, April 4, 2008, 8:30 a.m. - 1:45 p.m.

Where: George Mason University School of Law, Room 225, 3301 Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22201 (Orange Line: Virginia Square-GMU Metro). Admission is free, but seating is limited.
Because of construction, parking is tight. See http://www.law.gmu.edu/geninfo/parking.
See IEP Web page: http://iep.gmu.edu.

To reserve your spot, please email Drew Clark: iep.gmu@gmail.com.