we'll go now to chairman reed hundt who was nominated by president clinton and served as chairman of the fcc from 1993 to 1997. chairman hundt's tenure at the commission saw the passage of the omnibus budget reconciliation of '93 which granted the commission the authority to auction spectrum licenses, and the telecommunications act of '96. so, chairman hundt, thanks for joining us today. we look forward to your comments, as well. >> thank you, chairman walden. thank you for inviting me. good good morning to ranking member eshoo and all the other members of this distinguished committee. i'm proud that many of you have become lifelong friends and it's a pleasure to be here with you. i also want to thank the d.c. circuit for giving me a flashback to law school so that i was late last night scrambling to read the key case right before this class. i have a feeling i'm not the only person here who did that, but i also want to note, i didn't have any staff, or classmates, so, i apologize if i haven't read it correctly, but i thought that i would throw away my remarks, and for whatever it's w

. >> host: well, the head of the ntca, ncta, michael powell and michael copps and dick wily and reed hundt are all testifying this week as well on the hill about changing the communications law and whether the '96 law needs updating, whether the '34 law needs updating. would you be game for a big overhaul of communications laws at this point? >> guest: i think without question the communications act at this point is not keeping pace with where the marketplace is. as a general principle, what i've tried to advocate for my own perch at the fcc is that the fcc should do what it can to calibrate its regulations to fit the times. if a statute requires us to do the contrary, then we are essentially stuck. so i think we've reached the point now given the intermodal competition that we see that we, the fcc, needs to be able to take action to bring its regulations into the 21st century, to reduce the silos, for example, that require us to treat telephone companies and cable companies and wireless companies differently even though they're competing to provide the same service. so i think an update w

we'll go now to chairman reed hundt who was nominated by president clinton and served as chairman of the fcc from 1993 to 1997. chairman hundt's tenure at the commission saw the passage of the omnibus budget reconciliation of '93 which granted the commission the authority to auction spectrum licenses, and the telecommunications act of '96. so, chairman hundt, thanks for joining us today. we look forward to your comments, as well. >> thank you, chairman walden. thank you for inviting me. good good morning to ranking member eshoo and all the other members of this distinguished committee. i'm proud that many of you have become lifelong friends and it's a pleasure to be here with you. i also want to thank the d.c. circuit for giving me a flashback to law school so that i was late last night scrambling to read the key case right before this class. i have a feeling i'm not the only person here who did that, but i also want to note, i didn't have any staff, or classmates, so, i apologize if i haven't read it correctly, but i thought that i would throw away my remarks, and for whatever it's w

broadcast television and print newspapers, and the internet was still years away. 16 years later, when reed hundt took the reins the internet was coming into full force and mobility was beginning to take off. chairman powell's tenure saw the convergence of services towards the bundled offerings we see today, as well as the deployment of broadband to americans. and in the four years since michael copps served as academic chairman there have been dramatic changes to the way we communicate and the technology that powers our lives. for example the title of today's hearing contains a hash tag. twit per, then with no vowels in its name, had yet to be discovered by south by southwest. neither we nor the august panel before us can predict the future and what technological changes it will bring. but by learning the lessons of the past, we can do our best to create a legal and regulatory environment that will foster innovation, and competition, encourage consumer choice, and optimum services. so again i want to thank you for -- to our witnesses for this impressive panel. we look forward to hearing your tes

we'll go now to chairman reed hundt who was nominated by president clinton and served as chairman of the fcc from 1993 to 1997. chairman hundt's tenure at the commission saw the passage of the omnibus budget reconciliation of '93 which granted the commission the authority to auction spectrum licenses, and the telecommunications act of '96. so, chairman hundt, thanks for joining us today. we look forward to your comments, as well. >> thank you, chairman walden. thank you for inviting me. good good morning to ranking member eshoo and all the other members of this distinguished committee. i'm proud that many of you have become lifelong friends and it's a pleasure to be here with you. i also want to thank the d.c. circuit for giving me a flashback to law school so that i was late last night scrambling to read the key case right before this class. i have a feeling i'm not the only person here who did that, but i also want to note, i didn't have any staff, or classmates, so, i apologize if i haven't read it correctly, but i thought that i would throw away my remarks, and for whatever it's w