New Street's Levin Defends National Broadband Plan

New Street’s Blair Levin fired back at former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly for his criticism of the 2010 national broadband plan (see 2209260048). Levin managed creation of the plan. “I’m not surprised that the former Commissioner did not read the Plan, but fortunately others did,” Levin said: “These include Congress (which used the analysis and ideas regarding the incentive auction and FirstNet as the basis for the only communications legislation it has passed since the 1996 Act), the Administration (which used it as the basis for its 2010 and 2013 Spectrum Executive Orders), PCAST [the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology] (which brilliantly built on ideas in the Plan for detailing a new sharing regime), the FCC itself (which not only executed on the Congressional and Administration directives but also built on the Plan’s recommendations for various needed reforms for universal service), as well as industry (with Comcast’s Internet Essentials and Google Fiber being two initiatives that emerged from the planning process),” Levin emailed Tuesday: “I would be the first to acknowledge that 12 years after its publication, some of the analysis of the Plan, like the analysis of some former Commissioners, has become irrelevant.” O'Rielly declined comment.