Welcome to the Tech Policy Podcast. I'm Evan Swartstraver. On today's show, something different. You've heard many an episode where a Tech Freedom person like Barron Soka rants and raves about the FCC. It's almost always a rant. But we're going to do something a little different today. We've heard from our listeners that they'd like to hear some more diverse viewpoints,

people who approach telecom from a different standpoint than tech freedom. So I'm happy to say

that I'm joined by Philip Barronbrook, Senior Council at Public Knowledge, a tech policy think tank.

Philip, thanks for joining the show. Thank you for having me. So people often see tech freedom and

public knowledge

as polar opposites on telecom. It doesn't always have to be that way, but that is certainly

the perception. So this should certainly be an interesting show. But let's start off with the new FCC.

We recently had an episode where Barron talked about Ajit Pi, Trump's pick for FCC

and what he's hoping to see out of the FCC.

And obviously, our listeners are very familiar with our thoughts on Pi who's been on the show

before, but public knowledge, which has not always seen eye to eye with Chairman Pi to say

the least.

In general, what is your reaction so far?

So I think it's fair to say that we expected Chairman Pye to be named Chairman of the FCC.

We weren't sure whether it would be in a permanent capacity, which it is, or in an acting capacity.

So we were sort of game planning for both scenarios.

But now that, now that news is official, and he is the permanent chair, I think what we're hoping for is that Chairman Pye will embrace and put into practice some of the

bipartisan language that he and Commissioner O'Reilly and really all of the FCC commissioners

have, you know, for the last several years, sort of bemoaned, has gone by the wayside.

You know, there's been a lot of, and I think anytime I, I attend a congressional hearing

with FCC commissioners, you know, all the members of the Congress and the members of

the commission all sort of bemoan a better time when every vote was 5-0 and, you know, everyone sort of sang kumbaya and

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