By Michael Flecter

William Kennard is the face and voice of U.S. policy in industry's hottest sector


"We need to make technology cool in our communities. And that involves a change in culture."

William E. Kennard was sworn in as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in November 1997 and is the first African American to hold the post. Kennard leads the commission at a crucial time for telecommunications, an industry at the forefront of the dynamic and lucrative New Economy. Under Kennard's direction, the FCC has worked to create open markets where competition can flourish and innovation can thrive.
A native of Los Angeles, Kennard is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School. Before being named chairman, Kennard was general counsel to the commission. Before that, he was a partner and board member of the Washington, D.C., law firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand.
US Black Engineer & Information Technology sat down with Kennard recently to discuss his stewardship of the FCC and ask about his outlook on the future of African Americans and women in information technology.

USBE: Do you think most Americans, particularly minorities, grasp the changes being wrought by the amazing advances we're seeing in information technology?

Kennard: Some do, too many don't. It is not confined to the minority community. Many Americans don't understand how fundamentally technology is changing the way people live in this country today. I talk to a lot of Americans about technology, and what is frustrating to me is that many Americans understand that technology is very important to their lives and certainly will be important to the lives of their children in the future, but they are still very intimidated by technology. There is a sense that people can't really control it or understand it.
I think that is part of a transition we're going through. I think that technology that people touch in their daily lives will become increasingly user-friendly and people will be able to access it in ways that make it easier to use and to integrate into their lives. One big, major transition we're going through is the migration of the Internet out of the PC into hand-held devices, which is almost by definition more user-friendly and easier to deal with. It will democratize the Internet. More people will be able to afford it, one, because people won't have to shell out a couple of thousand dollars for a PC. But, also, it will be more accessible to more people.

USBE: But will the Internet remained stratified anyway? By that I mean, will some people use these devices just to send e-mails back and forth, while others use them to tap the deep veins of information that are out there?

Kennard: Oh sure, sure. Something that has concerned me greatly in this job is the need for all Americans to have access to technology. And if you look at the agenda that I have worked on in my tenure here at the FCC, the consistent theme that runs through it is to democratize technology and get it in the hands of all people. That is really our fundamental mandate here at the FCC, and I have seized that mandate. And I've used it aggressively. I have worked hard to put more technology into the schools. I believe that if we want to create more Black engineers in America, we've got to get technology in the hands of Black youth, the earlier the better. So, we have worked hard to implement the E-Rate, which was originally the vision of Vice President Gore 20 years ago and we have finally been able to implement. At the end of this year, we would have invested $6 billion and would have wired a million classrooms to the Internet. And, significantly, the program is tailored so that schools in low-income areas get a preference so that we can narrow the "Digital Divide." If you can get to kids early and turn them on to technology, we will have more African-American engineers and Hispanic engineers.

USBE: But is it enough to just have the technology present? So many teachers and parents are unfamiliar with and a little scared of technology and are unable to manipulate it to its full advantage or make it really interesting to students. What do we do about that?

Kennard: There is no question about that. Getting the technology in our schools is only one piece of the puzzle. We need curriculum development, teacher training. But, beyond that, changing the culture of technology. We want to get to the point where minority youth are as interested in the latest laptop as they are in the latest high-top. We need to make technology cool in our communities. And that involves a change in culture. That involves making sure that people who are the vanguard of technology, including the people who read this magazine, understand that they can play a real constructive role not only developing technology on their jobs but also spreading the gospel of technology in their communities.

USBE: How discouraging is it that many high-tech firms are importing workers from outside of the country, when there are so many minority youth out of work? 

Kennard: It is really discouraging. Our education system is not producing sufficient numbers of high-tech workers to fuel this high-tech economy. And that's gotta change. It starts with reforming the educational system. And not only bringing technology in the schools but, as I was saying before, creating a culture of technology. Teaching people how to use it, the importance of it and how they can integrate it into their lives.
One reason I was so delighted to speak to the people who read this magazine, is because they hold the key to making it happen. It is an incredibly powerful group because they are working in technology, and they can bring their knowledge to young people and show them that pathway, because they have gone down that pathway.

USBE: What do (the recent big mergers in telecommunications) mean for minority and female business people?

Kennard: The biggest of threat of consolidation is that it closes off opportunity for small businesses, which are frequently minority and female businesses. So what we've tried to do always, in all of our work, is to always keep the pathway open for small business. And we don't do that just because it serves diversity goals, but because it is good for the economy. Most of the innovation and the growth we see in this industry is coming from small, entrepreneurial companies. That is the story of the Internet. Today, in America, 50 percent of Americans who access the Internet do so over a company that is not affiliated with their phone company. They do it over independent ISPs (Internet service providers), many of them small companies that have been able to carve out that niche in the marketplace. We've got to continue to do that. Not only in the Internet space and the wire-line world, but also in the wireless space, and the broadcast space.

USBE: And, again, have minority businesses been able to take advantage of those pathways?

Kennard: Not enough. There are obviously a lot of reasons for that.... I see in Silicon Valley, for example, the myth of the meritocracy. That, all it takes here is to have smarts and energy and you can make it. When I talk to Silicon Valley executives, they tend to point to the fact that there are a lot of CEOs in Silicon Valley who are immigrants from India, from the Far East. And that is a wonderful development in our country, and it helps make our country strong. But what they don't realize is that we have people in this country who are being excluded from the network of relationships that creates the formula for success. And I think it is important for people, particularly people in Silicon Valley who want to continue to pull energy and talent to this marketplace, to realize that there are barriers to success in our own country that they can help break down by reaching into their communities and mentoring young people of color, by using their resources to invest in education, etc. And the Black engineers can do the same.

USBE: Let's talk mergers again. With all of the mergers happening, how do we ensure universal access and not lose control to these megacompanies?

Kennard: I think the best way to ensure universal access is through competition. We're seeing that with broadband today. The Bell companies have had DSL technology for over a decade now, but they did not begin to aggressively employ it until the cable industry decided that they would move their cable modem strategy. Once that happened, it lit a fire under the Bell companies. So, what we try to do here at the FCC is to do as much as we can to foster new entry, new innovation, new competition, so that everyone is nervous. Right now, everybody in telecommunications is nervous. The big companies are nervous because they're afraid that some kid in a garage somewhere is going to create some IP-telephony device that is going to shift the whole paradigm of telephony and undermine their whole business model. That's a good thing, because with any industry or any company that gets too complacent then it stops innovating and it stops growing.

USBE: What opportunities are presented by leased lines and is this something minority and female business people should be pursuing?

Kennard: They are good entry-level opportunities. As a policy matter, leasing lines for resale has been a good way for us to allow new competitors to get a foothold in the marketplace.... But it is not a long-term business venture, it is an entry point. No company wants to rely for its long-term strategy on using the facilities of other companies, its competitors.

USBE: What about ultra-broadband? Is that creating new opportunity for minority and female business people?

Kennard: I talk to a lot of minority business groups and entrepreneurs, and I sort of get frustrated when minority business people are focused on yesterday's technology, because the key is that folks who get in early with innovative technology can be winners.
As I look ahead at the technologies that I think are going to be very interesting, paradigm-shifting technologies that are going to provide opportunities, you mentioned one, ultra-wideband technology. That holds promise. Then there is IT telephony. That has the potential of revolutionizing the phone business. It is the ability to use the Internet for voice telephony....
Other technologies that I think are very promising are all the technologies that revolve around the wireless Web. You've seen in this country an explosion of activity creating software for the 'Net. People who are learning to write software for the wireless 'Net, I think are going to have a lot of opportunities.
The last one I would mention is software-defined radio. There is going to be a huge demand for spectrum.... There are technologies that we're looking at authorizing here at the FCC which conserve spectrum by using a chip that will allow the device to operate across a broad range of frequencies. So you can have a small, wireless device that operates as -- all in one device -- as a telephone, a radio, a pager, and even a television set, by finding frequencies that it needs. The software is available, we just haven't figured out how to exactly incorporate it. So I think that is going to be really an interesting area of development.

USBE: So, again, you say there are not many minority business people talking about these kinds of things?

Kennard: Some, but not enough. I think that over the last five years, minority businesses are becoming more 'Net-savvy. But, all too often, when I talk to minority entrepreneurs, they are still asking how they can get an FM radio station, which is fine. I believe in FM radio. But for entrepreneurs looking for the next high-growth opportunity, you've got to be on the cutting edge. It is all about timing.