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25th Anniversary of FCC Decision Enabling Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

25th Anniversary of FCC Decision Enabling Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
A series of posts describing how this all came about. (Click on picture above)

Monday, February 02, 2009


MBR: FTC -> FCC


For those of you who don't read the Federal Trade Commission website, which is a lot better in many ways than the FCC's, last Friday the following announcement was posted:

Bureau of Consumer Protection Deputy Director Richards to Leave FTC

Federal Trade Commission Chairman William E. Kovacic announced today that Mary Beth Richards, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, will leave the agency to return to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and that Mary K. Engle, currently Associate Director in the Bureau’s Division of Advertising Practices, will serve as Acting Deputy Director. ...

“Mary Beth is an outstanding public servant,” Chairman Kovacic said. “Her work for the Commission on behalf of American consumers is greatly valued, as it surely will be when she returns to the FCC.”

Richards joined the FTC in 2006 after 23 years with the FCC. As Deputy Director, she has worked on a broad range of matters, including identity theft prevention, fraudulent marketing practices, order enforcement, debt collection and other financial services matters, and implementation of the U.S. SAFE WEB Act. ...

The Bureau of Consumer Protection enforces consumer protection laws and trade regulation rules, investigates business practices, sues law violators, develops rules to protect consumers, and provides consumer and business education.

I worked alongside Mary Beth in the old FCC Field Operations Bureau, now Enforcement Bureau, and less directly when she was in the Office of the Managing Director. She was one of the most wonderful people I ever worked alongside with, a very dedicated career civil servant. In OMD she handled many key administrative matters such as reorganizations. One might assume that her return is in anticipation of activity in this area once a long term chairman is named.

Welcome back to FCC, MBR. It is a sign of more rational management.

[The photo above is from 1993 during her FOB period. Could not find a more recent one, but didn't think she would mind.]

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