Past Events
The Genesis of Unlicensed Wireless: How 
Spread Spectrum Devices Won Access to License-Exempt Bandwidth (April 4, 2008)
The technologies used in Wi-Fi and cordless phones were not authorized for use until a bold and unlikely initiative was undertaken by the Federal Communications Commission, from 1979 to 1985. This IEP conference brought together the engineers, entrepreneurs and FCC officials who changed the rules and unleashed unlicensed wireless.
Organized by Professor Charles Jackson of George Washington University, the conference was introduced by comments from former FCC Chairman Mark Fowler, and featured a keynote from FCC engineer Michael Marcus, the MIT-trained engineer who spearheaded the agency’s spread spectrum rules. The FCC’s first chief scientist, Stephen Lukasik, then joined entrepreneurs DeWayne Hendricks, Kevin Negus and Tim Pozar, noted spectrum attorney Henry Goldberg, and Delft University Prof. Vic Hayes, among others, to deliver informative research papers that will be published in a special issue of INFO.
An Information Policy Economy Project Conference: Merger Analysis In High Technology Markets (February 1, 2008)
The IEP conference on high tech mergers focused on how to evaluate antitrust issues in dynamic markets, where product boundaries and competitive rivalries are characterized more by tumult than by stability. Plenary speeches by Kenneth Heyer of the Justice Department Antitrust Division and Luke Froeb of Vanderbilt University set the tone for a rich array of analysis of Information Economy mergers, including DirecTV-Dish, Google-DoubleClick, and XM-Sirius. Michael Baye, Federal Trade Commission, Richard Gilbert and Howard Shelanski of U.C. Berkeley, former FTC Commissioner Mary Coleman, Robert Hahn (AEI), and other experts presented analyses. Josh Wright, of GMU School of Law and the FTC, organized the conference. Papers are to be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Competition Law & Economics.
Smart Radio: Smart Markets and Policies (April 6, 2007)
This conference on the policy implications of advanced wireless technologies was co-sponsored with Columbia, Clemson, and Virginia Tech. Presentations are available through the link to the Colombia Institute for Tele-Information.
Public Safety Communications Crisis (December 6, 2006)
When terrorists attacked the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, more than 100 fighters could not receive the call ordering evacuation on police radios. This was precisely the catastrophe warned of five years earlier in a federal report on interoperability problems. In this conference, Jon Peha of Carnegie Mellon University, Jerry Brito of the Mercatus Center, Phil Weiser of the University of Pennsylvania, and Gerald Faulhaber of Wharton offered fresh solutions in research published by the Federal Communications Law Journal (June 2007). Co-ponsored with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Innovation, Technology & Spectrum Policy (November 14, 2006)
This conference was keynoted by Qualcomm Founder and Chairman Irwin M. Jacobs, and featured presentations on spectrum policy issues by Dewayne Hendricks (Dandin Group), Coleman Bazelon (Brattle), Andrew Orlowski (The Register), Thomas Hazlett (GMU), and Pierre deVries (USC). Presentation video files and slides are available.
Lessons From the Telecom Wars (September 28, 2006)
This conference considered what has been learned about the effort to promote telecommunications competition via network sharing mandates, with talks by Nicolas Economides (NYU), Marius Schwartz (Georgetown) and Robert Crandall (Brookings). A debate on Net Neutrality regulation featured Paul Misener (Amazon.com) and Thomas Hazlett (GMU).