[time-nuts] Lightsquared and a little math

[Bob Bownes]

> In my view, this technical tone-deafness at the FCC persists because there
> has been no engineering expertise or background at the Commission(er) level
> since ... well, I'm not sure there ever was, but perhaps in the 1930s-'40s.
>  The FCC staff is supposed to provide engineering support, but Commissioners
> often do not listen to the staff as carefully as they should and sometimes
> the staff gets it wrong.  IMO, the 5-person Commission should always include
> at least one engineer and one economist so that at least in theory it has
> enough expertise to do a reality check on proposals at the Commission level.


The NTIA and technical folks I've worked with @ the FCC over the years
have been fantastic. It's the translation of their recommendations to
the Commissioner level where it gets tricky. Politics enters the
equation and makes things icky to us engineering types. The fact that
the commissioners have 5 year terms (unless, of course, they quit) and
often have odd overlap with any political entities in charge of the
white house or congress make it even ickier. Add in the position of
chairman of the commission and the effect of that over the other
Commissioners _and_ their fundamentally independent nature from each
other, and the ickiness factor starts to go non linear.