Jim Baller, telecom attorney, Baller Herbst Law Group

Jim Baller is the founder of the Baller Herbst Law Group and a leading figure in the field of telecommunications law. He spoke today with Broadband Wireless Access World and Broadband over Power Line World to bring listeners up-to-date on matters of muni-broadband regulation, legislation, and litigation since he last appeared here on January 6, 2005, on a program entitled "Telecommunications attorney Jim Baller says that the United States must address the growing "broadband gap" if it intends to remain internationally competitive."

Today's conversation covered such matters as "triple-play overbuilders" (alternative providers of telephony, video programming, and Internet access in a single package); the range of rules determining local authority to build and/or operate broadband networks within the area of their jurisdiction; the transition of campaigns by incumbent telcos and cable companies to stifle municipal broadband through outright prohibition of their right to do so into campaigns to legislate a "level playing field" for incumbent-municipal competition; recent successes in turning back incumbent efforts to suppress muni-broadband at the state level; and the elevation of the regulatory battle to the federal level, where legislation by U.S. Representative from Texas Pete Sessions, U.S. Senators from New Jersey and Arizona Frank Lautenberg and John McCain, respectively, and a re-write of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 by U.S. Senator from Nevada John Ensign are now pending in Congress.

You can hear all the details of this conversation with telecom attorney Jim Baller by clicking here.