>> we will take a look at the challenges communications will face in 2014. we have our panel here from the daily, the hill, and the manager of bloomburg is here. what is on the fcc agenda this year? >> to start off, the fcc in 2014 and beyond will be focused on spectrum.

congress as well. we will have this month the first spectrum auction at the fcc and nearly half a decade. and we will have another spectrum auction later this year. and the biggest one which everyone has been anticipating is the senate auction in 2015 as the new fcc chairman tom wheeler has stated. as i see it that is one of the bigger issues in congress and the fcc. the wireless carries have been lobbying to free up federal and commercial airwaves to satisfy their consumer's appetite for ba band with.

>> how important is this auction? >> many people thought it was going to be a bigger deal. there is only going to be one twitter. for years, spint and nextel suggested they were going to bid, but they have not filled an application to bid. they have no interest at this point. so it is going to be dish alone buying the spectrum. not really a spectrum auction as much as sale. but we will see the fcc in action in how they conduct this auction and following h-block is aws3 which is a more widely attended auction, if you will. >> matthew, what else do you see the fcc working on this year? >> it is going to be determined by a brand new chairman in tom

wheeler. we had the wile association and the cable association and he is not afraid to come out slinging. in the book he wrote about l lincoln and we said doing the same thing is thinking about measure. and the first thing wheeler did was if you don't come up with a man to let consumers unlock cellphones and let them go to other carriers i will find one for you. so i expect a chairman who is more than happy to let the free market take over unless there is problems in which case he is eager to flex the fcc regulatory

muscle. the first think we will see is the ip transition and the trials that at&t has been requesting. they want trials of deregulation in various wireless centers as they transfer from copper to fiber. the protocols switching to internet packet and this is going to be where the fcc takes a look to see how well the wire trials will work. a lot say they will work just fine because the carriers have every incentive in the world to have the fcc see that deregulation works. but they are looking for signs of harm to consumers, older americans who rely on things like hearing aids that have

traditionally worked with copper lines very well, but don't necessarily work as well with ip technology. they will look to see if what happened on fire island a year ago after the hurricane/super storm where all of the technologies broke down and wireless wasn't a good s substitute. he is not going to be afraid to take action if things fall apart during the trials. >> what about the hill? is there a tech agenda on the hill? >> i would say surveillance reform. 2013 was a big year for surveillance and the links will keep coming. by the end of january, president obama will address the review group's recommendations.

they put together 46 and some of them the whitehouse will accept and some are more contentious. we have the reform service, rain it in, and bulk collection. and then you have the intelligence committees looking to protect the nsa and keep the surveillance programs as they are. that should pay out and we will see where the president stands. >> the issue of privacy. if you could all address that and potential legislative or regulatory reform? >> privacy definitely is moving on many fronts. there is the surveillance issue and the issue of access to consumer data by the government but the fcc is jumping in and

considering having fcc used for commercial data. and we have looking at multi stake hold efforts not moving as much as they should. you heard them saying commercial privacy is more of a concern. >> the fcc isn't as focused on privacy, but public interest groups are petitiopetitions the expand the privacy measures with things like customer propriety network information so the rules apply to the collection of data. so the fcc is going to be asked

to help where it can but privacy is more in congress. >> one agency to watch is the ftc. they are the first line of defense when it comes to consumer privacy. they have work would the largest temp companies and the big settlements every. they got twitter to implement their first privacy practice. so they will continue to be aggressive on this front using the section five under the federal trade commission act. and why many people want the fcc to be a stronger regulation in this area and be a privacy and

security data regulator. they will continue to use the section five authority as best best as they go. >> a couple court cases related to this world. the aereo case and net neutrality. >> no one knows what is going to happen with net neutrality. we have been saying the court can make a decision at any time and that is true. today, tomorrow, next week or sometime soon. the court is struggling whether the fcc's open internet order that prohibits blocking and price discrimination is too close to what is known as common carriage. if they have the right to regulate the phone companies,

phone companies have to take outcomer at the same price. they are trying to apply the same rules to the internet. the judge was listening to the rules and explained that sounds like classic common carriage. and one of the other judges seemed to agree. so most observers believe that at least the discrimination section of the net neutrality law will be found unlawful. if that happens, it is almost certainly going to be appealed to the supreme court. tom wheeler sparked some concern by public interest when he said in an ohio state speech he was

interested in seeing a two-sided market develop on the internet. where net flix can pay for faster service. and some are saying that is him going against net neutrality. but there is ways to read into what he is saying that doesn't violate it. if netflix was paying for content or something that was excluded from the net neutrality rules. but it is kind of a read to get tom wheeler out of trouble. it is going to be interesting to see what happens. >> one of the big interesting aspects of this case is how far the court will go.

verizon appealed the ordered and challenged it on the bases of authority and forwarded a first amendment as well. claiming they are like a newspaper with the right to include or exclude any information they see fit. so the court could overturn the fcc's open ended order on the bases of authority but they could go further. they could rule on verizon's first amendment challenge and then it will bring into question almost every regulation on the books >> and whatever happened will spark response on the hill. if the court strikes down the rule, we can executive to see democrats jumping in saying we need the rules to protect

consumers. there are democrats that don't think the rule goes far enough. if the court upholds the rule, you will see the republicans trying to rewrite the law to take authority away from them. >> the federal trade commission is more than happy to jump in if they lose regulation. most of the commissioners have come out saying a lot of net neutrality disputes are consumer protection or fault advertising suits and they feel there are enough tools in their box to deal with the net newtrali trne issues. i wonder how much they will

matter. a tweet was out saying 2014 could be the year that more people access the internet with mobile devices more than solid connections. and the wireless carriers are excluded under net neutrality. speeds on wireless internet when the rules were put in place in 2009-2010 were very low. today people are streaming movies and we are going to continue to see this year wireless carriers coming up with new plans that would be possibly illegal under the neutrality laws. like at&t announcing sponsored data where a company like netflix could pay to have their

data not count against a user's cap. that is the dynamic of the two-sided market wheeler is talking about. we're seeing that in respect to wireless and i think we will keep at it. >> what else? the supreme court might take up the aereo case? >> we will find out if they will consider it next week >> what is the case? >> it is over aereo which streams broadcast content and other content they have licenses for. the broadcasters are saying it is a copy right issue and aereo shouldn't be able to provide it without an antenna but they say they are just providing it over the internet. >> when you take the temperature on tech issue on the hill, what do you find? >> there is definitely still post sopa leeriness about

jumping into things that will cause backlash. with the surveillance stuff you are seeing people coming out in huge droves in ways that hasn't happened since sopa. that is building and lawmakers are definitely aware of that. >> yeah, and just to add to that, the aereo case is one of the bigger court cases that could transform the communication sector. michael powell who is now president and cta says the biggest thing that will change our space and the aereo case. we will see potentially the supreme court take it up and find out whether aereo's service

is legal. they use dime-sized antennas to capture signals and send it over the internet. fox says if they will not pay us a royalty payment we will become a cabe -- cable -- channel. >> which is unlikely to happen but it is nice talk. what this aereo case is just a continuation of the continuing clash between old laws and new technology. the copy write act doesn't allow you to take the signals and copy them, but with these dime-sized antennas they are saying they are following the letter of the law. each person has an antenna and

they argue whether the length doesn't matter. it is going to be interesting what the supreme court decides. if they approve the technologies, i think we will see a lot more continued competition and it might spur other broadcast companies to get more involved into the internet space >> and aereo raises sharp questions about how we consume video content. the concept raises questions about whether the cable model of packaging packages together is going to be viable. >> this is going to continue holding hears that could affect copy write law and i am sure

aereo is part of this >> could the old law/new technology lead to a rewrite of the telecom act? >> there seems to be an appetite for that even though it is a large undertaking and will take some time. the house committee announced they would be rewriting the act. they have a hearing scheduled for january. they are getting started right off the bat. but it is going to take a while before we see anything concrete on that. >> i think the big challenge for lawmakers in rewriting the act is finding a problem. the last update in '96, the phone bills were high. so it was easy for lawmakers to stand before podiums and give pres conferences about the need for reforming the communication act. and comcast and others have said we have an a symmetrical

framework and we need reform. but i believe to see an act rewrite we need congress to articulate the problem. we have old rules and new technologies. but as far as consumers are concerned their problems might be different. they might be concerned with data caps or the cost of their monthly cable service. but in a way we have to see amegeddon before a rewrite. >> what would constitute that? >> if grandma can no longer afford to watch nightline or is

disconnected from phone service. retransmission consent is one issue where when someone is cut off from their rose bowl game the phones start ringing at the congressional offices. and lawmakers get really, really upset. and they start to threaten rewrites. these are the issues to watch for. when the average consumer starts to raise issue to congress men and women about their communication services. >> rewriting the communications act is such a challenge endeavor. the current laws we have are like duct taped on to everything that started with the communication act in 1934 which was a rewrite from the original

1920 radio act and they realized they had to have something more broad/extensive. but the telecom act of '96 has been rewritten and i feel if we update it you will have a silo and there is a document that is open at the fcc and none of the chairman want to close it because it is kind of the nuclear option if the fcc is found not to have authority they could say we could reclassify them as telecom services. a lot of people argue that could be a backwards step.

whenever it happens, i think everyone would agree it has to be technology neutral or you will have different rules for different technologies and continue to have problems with whatever the next big technology that becomes >> and one of the problems is what is going to be in it. the narrative is muddled. what should be into the new communication act. in '96, the baby bells and this new year's day was the creation of the baby belt. and in '96 congress caught a deal with them saying we will allow you to enter new markets and compete in the long distance telephone market and emerge as competitors in the paid television pace. but in exchange, you have to -- space -- lease out our network

elements to competitors. and so i think there has been somewhat of disconnect on the hill about what should be in the acts aside from let's blow up the silos and no more title 2 or 3 or title 6 for cable let's just deregulate. there has to be a quid propro, and i don't know what that is. >> there is an effort on capital hill for fcc reform as well. >> there is. it saw a rebirth late last year. we saw a bill that was bipartisanship in the previous year. there was an agreement before two represents on the reform act and it softened up the

republican stances and incorporated some of the flexibility provisions the democrats wanted and that passed the committee, has momentum going to the house floor, and it is bipartisan agenda on what was troubled ground. >> what is another issue, paul, we haven't discussed? >> mergers and consolidation of wireless space. charter is trying to sweeten the bid for time warner. as technology changes and competition increases we will see more companies partner. >> the fcc form chair was proud

at reforming interstate prison rates. that has been challenged by every inmate service calling provider. they say the fcc didn't have authority and have mandated rate regulation. one person said this is what happens when you have a chair person who isn't a lawyer and they overreach. and the fcc is trying to work on intrastate rates using the pay phone provisions and this has the state body up in arms. they are saying the fcc can't do this. so the fcc may well find itself

having to redeal with this issue of prison calling. >> and kate? >> we will see a lot of activity on pattens. you have google, cisco, hotel companies and other joining in to reform the patten process. >> well, this week, a quick preview of some of the issues faced by the fcc and congress in the tech and telecom world. kate is the hill, matthew with communication daily and paul with bloomberg. thanks for being on "the

communicators" this week. >> god gave us a precious gift. say yes to your life. when it comes to drugs and alcohol, just say no. >> first lady nancy regan as the original series first lady and influence returns tonight at 9 eastern. sever regulators say new safe guards will protect against risky loans.

a house committee looks at the new rules and banking official will testify tomorrow and live coverage beens tomorrow. later in the day also on c-span 3, members of a review of u.s. intelligence agencies will testify about changes to s surveillance programming. next, a look at options in iraq and afghanistan. this is 40 minutes. " continues. host: >> at the table, a former defense under secretary for policy in the obama administration. good morning. >> good morning. >> our guest is now with the center for new americans security and we are hear to talk about iraq and afghanistan and other matters.

we start with the headline in the washington times that iraq's chaos could be oman but the troops are bringing them together. afghanistan war planners are trying to picture the country without the united states troops might want to cast an eye toward the iraq. al qaeda has reassembled and unleashed ways of deadly carb carbam -- car bombs -- the same situation could happen in afghanistan. any thoughts? >> i do think that we have to be careful about withdrawing our support and assistance for afghanistan too quickly. i think a lot of progress has been