VoIP: Why is it not your parents' Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS)?
March 16, 2004
Panelists
Overview | Video | Panelist Biographies | One-Pagers
Anne C. Boyle
Commissioner, Nebraska Public Service Commission
Professional Career
- Elected to the Public Service Commission in November 1996
- President of Universal Revenue Services since 1992
- Consultant/lobbyist from 1994 to 1995
- Licensed real estate agent from 1987 to 1994
Committees
- Member, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Serves on the Board of Directors, Committee on Consumer Affairs and Committee on Electricity.
- Member, Mid-America Regulatory Commissioners. Current Vice-President. Also served as Secretary and Treasurer
- Board member, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts
- Member, Nebraska Interagency Council on the Homeless
- Member, Nebraska Review Committee for Federal Appointments for US Attorney, US Marshall, and the Eighth District Court of Appeals Federal Judgeship from 1993 to 1995
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, December 22, 1942. She and her husband Mike, Mayor of Omaha from 1981 to 1987, have five children: Maureen, Michael, James, Patrick and Margaret. Resides in Omaha.
Rick Cimerman
Senior Director, State Telecommunications Policy, National Cable & Telecommunications Association
Rick is the Senior Director of State Telecommunications Policy. He joined NCTA as a Director in January 1995. His primary responsibility is to aid State Cable Associations and cable companies in working with Public Utility Commissions to facilitate local telecommunications competition.
Rick currently co-chairs the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee's Broadband Task Force, serves as the Program Chair for the NARUC/NECA National Summit on Broadband Deployment and is the past president of the National Coalition for Technology and Education in Training (NCTET). He has testified across the country before numerous state Public Service Commissions and Legislatures. He has also served as an adjunct faculty member of Michigan State University's NARUC Annual Regulatory Studies Program and serves as a member of New Mexico State University's Center for Public Utilities Advisory Committee.Prior to joining NCTA he worked for nearly three years as the Director of the Telecommunications Division of the Maryland Public Service Commission. Rick oversaw the Telecommunications Division at a time when Maryland became one of the first states to allow local exchange competition. While at the Commission he managed a professional staff of accountants, economists, and engineers and provided expert testimony on behalf of the staff.
Rick also worked for two and a half years at the Florida Public Service Commission with an emphasis on issues related to competition and emerging competition. He holds a Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Economics from the University of Florida where he studied public utility economics in association with the Public Utility Research Center (PURC) at the University of Florida. Rick is also a former Jeopardy TV game show winner.
Tom Evslin
Chairman and CEO, ITXC Corp.
Policy Chairman, VON Corporation
Tom Evslin founded ITXC in 1997 and has been its Chairman and CEO since then. The company is now one of the world's leading international carriers and is the market share leader in international Voice over IP with approximately 20% of the worldwide market. ITXC's extremely fast growth was made possible both by the proprietary technology ITXC developed to provide tier one quality to carrier customer while getting the economic advantage of using the Internet for transport and by the company's ability to reach interconnect agreements with hundreds of carriers worldwide. The company's global voice over the Internet (VoIP) network, ITXC.netŪ, now serves more than 175 countries.
Link Hoewing
Assistant Vice President of Internet and Technology Issues, Verizon Communications
C. Lincoln (Link) Hoewing is Assistant Vice President of Internet and Technology Issues for Verizon, the country's largest telecommunications provider. Verizon was formed through the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE. He is responsible for identifying and assessing emerging issues, developing corporate positions on Internet and Technology industry issues. In addition to the aforementioned responsibilities, Mr. Hoewing develops relationships with high technology industry members, interactive technology associations, research institutes, and think tanks. He frequently delivers public discourses on high technology issues. Amidst his various and pertinent duties at Verizon, Link has taken the time to write articles on using the Internet in the public policy process.
Link's prior responsibilities include three years in the External Affairs positions at Bell Atlantic and Telecom in New Zealand. In New Zealand he was responsible for negotiating Verizon's agreements between carriers, promoting the sale of New Zealand's Telecom stock and working on inter-connection policies with the Government. He helped developed the company's Consumer policies and improved their customer service.
He also served eight years as a Congressional Legislative Aide and Deputy Staff Director on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. As Deputy Staff Director he managed the scheduling of hearings, committee legislative structures, and oversight and budget authorization procedures. He initiated oversight hearings on defense programs that resulted in major reform to the management of defense programs.
Link Hoewing has a Bachelor's degree from Carthage College and a Masters degree in Public Administration from American University.
Blair Levin
Managing Director, Legg Mason
Blair Levin joined Legg Mason in January 2001 as a Managing Director and the firm's principal regulatory strategy analyst. Mr. Levin has served as Chief of Staff to Chairman Reed Hundt at the Federal Communications Commission from December 1993 through October 1997. Mr. Levin's time at the Commission included the most productive and important period in the Commission's history. Described by Broadcast and Cable Magazine as "The Sixth Commissioner," Mr. Levin oversaw, among other matters, the implementation of the historic 1996 Telecommunications Reform Act, the first spectrum auctions, the development of digital television standards, and the Commission's Internet initiative. Prior to his position with the FCC, Mr. Levin was a partner in the North Carolina law firm of Parker Poe, Poe, Adams and Bernstein, where he represented new communications ventures, as well as numerous local governments on public financing issues.
He is a summa cum laude graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School. Mr. Levin has spoken to numerous conferences around the world on telecommunications issues. He has written for a variety of publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Washington Monthly, Network World, Brill's Content and Teletimes, and has appeared on a variety of radio and television programs such as "Talk of the Nation". From 1997 to 1999, he served on the board of KnowledgeBaseMarketing, a leading privately held database marketing company, prior to its sale in 1999 to Young & Rubicam. Immediately prior to joining Legg Mason, Mr. Levin was a principal in the Blue Hill Group, providing strategic advice to well established telecommunications companies, such as Excite@Home, USA Networks and CMGI, start-up companies in the telecommunications sector.