Barack Obama’s presidency could spell major changes for the technology industry after years of limited White House attention.
According to Ed Black, president and chief executive of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, Tuesday’s election outcome is good news for technology companies since the Obama camp has many tech-savvy advisers who understand the sector and its users. That was reflected in the Obama campaign’s innovative use of technology and the Internet to organize volunteers, raise money and communicate with voters.
“There has not been much leadership on technology issues in Washington over the past eight years,” Black said. “We don’t want special favors. We just want people to understand us.”
Paul Gallant, a telecom analyst at Stanford Washington Research Group, believes Obama could take on at least one big priority for the industry: extending the concept behind network neutrality principles — which prohibit broadband providers from favoring or discriminating against online traffic traveling over their networks — into the wireless arena.
The Federal Communications Commission’s existing net neutrality principles have focused on high-speed Internet access delivered over wireline systems. But Google Inc. and other big technology companies as well as consumer advocacy groups have called for rules that would require wireless networks to be similarly open to all devices and applications.
Today, most wireless services operate as walled gardens that allow subscribers to use only approved handsets and devices and access only certain Web sites and online applications.
Gallant believes Obama would also be more likely to tap the federal Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes telephone service in rural and low-income communities, to bring broadband to underserved parts of the country. Universal broadband is also top priority for technology companies.
Yet tech companies have reason to be cautious, too. For one thing, said Christopher Hansen, president and chief executive of the American Electronics Association, Obama has not…