Jim Baller

Founder, U.S. Broadband Coalition

U.S. Broadband Strategy
49 minutes, 22.6mb, recorded 2009-12-30
Jim Baller

In February 2010,  the FCC is scheduled to deliver a national broadband strategy to Congress. Scott Mace and attorney Jim Baller discuss the FCC strategy, early-round stimulus funding, the role of municipalities, and success stories such as Bristol, Virginia's fiber-to-the-home service. Baller notes that those cities where wireless broadband failed represent the failure of a particular kind of business model, or of restrictive state laws, not of the concept of municipal broadband itself.


Jim Baller is president of the Baller Herbst Law Group, a national law firm based in Washington, DC, and Minneapolis, MN. The firm specializes in communications and related matters, including telecommunications, cable television, high-speed data communications, the Internet, wireless communications, right-of-way management, pole and conduit attachments, barriers to the public-sector entry into communications, bankruptcy, privacy, and antitrust. His clients include the American Public Power Association, the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA), regional and state utility associations and municipal leagues, and numerous public and private entities in more than 35 states. He is also the founder of the US Broadband Coalition, a large and diverse consortium of prominent communications providers, high technology companies, manufacturers, labor unions, public interest and consumer groups, educational institutions, state and local government entities, utilities, content creators, foundations, charitable institutions, and other organizations that are working toward the development of a comprehensive national broadband strategy.

Baller is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Cornell Law School. He is a member of the Bars of the Supreme Court of the United States; the United States Circuit Courts of Appeal for the District of Columbia, Federal, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Eleventh Circuits; and the courts of the District of Columbia. He holds Martindale-Hubbell's highest AV rating.

Resources:

This free podcast is from our Opening Move series.

For The Conversations Network: