Courses & Events

James Miller, Esq., Senior Attorney Advisor, Federal Communications Commission

Thursday, Oct 27, 2011

04:15 pm - 05:30 pm

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Mobile Services and Spectrum Demand: Enabling Both New and Old

Mr. James Miller, Esq. Senior Attorney Advisor, Federal Communications Commission
Adjunct Professor of Law, American University, Washington College of Law

Mobile communications have emerged as revolutionary force that exerts disruptive change in every industry sector and aspect of daily life. Traditional telecommunications services such as voice calling continue to shift from the traditional landline “home” phone to mobile devices that support innovative new ways to communicate. The TV ceases to be the only “boob tube” with youtube and other options for video entertainment showing strong promise. Even at the most crucial times when disasters strike, the mobile phone has proven itself to be valuable tool in protecting the public and saving lives. Two competing trends influence the trajectory of these changes as observed in the US as well as Asia.

The first theme is that the explosive demand for mobile services comes at a price. Satisfying the spectrum needs of mobile providers adds greatly to the existing “spectrum crunch” and fuels a renewed need to reevaluate the spectrum needs of all services, even those with hundred year pedigrees. Focus on the television broadcast spectrum has resulted in a variety of reallocations, transitions, and repacking attempts to free up spectrum for mobile communications. The US and Japan, having completed a “Digital Transition” in TV are in the throws of further reviews, while Korea gears up for its own Digital TV transition in 2012.

The second theme is the tension between the merits of historical communications services on new technology platforms. Many innovative and disruptive mobile communications services rely on the presence of Internet-Protocol based data communications and compete directly with other traditional forms of communications. However, it is unclear whether mobile communications will take the same course that Internet technologies traveled coming form the desktop computer. Public safety and disaster response events in 2011 demonstrated the promise of social media and other Internet-based technologies. At the same time, non-IP based technology, not to mention “legacy” technology, played important roles in these events as well.

James Miller is a Senior Attorney Advisor in the Office of Engineering and Technology at the Federal Communications Commission, Adjunct Professor of Law at the American University, Washington College of Law, an Affiliated Research Fellow of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information at the Columbia Business School and a 2004-2006 Mansfield Fellow. At the FCC, Mr. Miller focuses on regulatory and policy matters related to spectrum and Internet technology. As Adjunct Professor of Law at the American University, Washington College of Law, he teaches U.S.-Japan Comparative Law and develops programs focused on East-Asia and technology. As a Mansfield Fellow, Mr. Miller explored Japanese regulatory policies for broadband technology and the information society, particularly focusing on legal and regulatory reforms and spectrum policy, in the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Radio Policy Bureau (MIC), Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Office of Senior-Vice Minister Yoshitaka SAKURADA, and the Tokyo District and High Court’s Administrative Litigation and Intellectual Property Sections. He is a cum laude graduate of the Washington College of Law, American University, and holds a bachelors degree in Economics and East-Asian studies (honors) from the University of Kansas. He is bilingual in English and Japanese and frequently speaks and publishes in Japanese for business, legal, and technical audiences in Japan.

Stanford University
Thursday, October 27, 2011
4:15PM ~ 5:30PM
Skilling Auditorium

With support from Altus Technologies and Olympus Corporation