Internet Innovation Association Announces Return of Founding Co-Chair Larry Irving

January 23, 2014 – This press release come over the wire from the Internet Innovation Alliance:

Ten years after he founded the Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA) alongside still-Co-Chair Bruce Mehlman, Larry Irving this month returns to the coalition, the IIA today announced. In 2009, Irving stepped down from his role with IIA to join Hewlett Packard as vice president of global government affairs. Since 2011, he has provided strategic advice and assistance to international telecommunications and information technology companies, foundations, and non-profit organizations.

“Larry is ‘one of the greats’ when it comes to the tech world, having helped write our nation’s Internet success story,” said Mehlman. “We indeed are amidst the ‘fourth network revolution’, and IIA is excited to take advantage of Larry’s seasoned insight to help make the IP Transition yet another win for Americans in education, healthcare, business and rural development.”

Mehlman added, “High-speed broadband is essential for powering economic growth, maximizing investment and promoting America’s global competiveness.”

Irving and Mehlman teamed up in 2004 to help solve, through technology, many of the challenges facing our country. Today, they are joined by IIA Co-Chairman Jamal Simmons and Rick Boucher, honorary chairman of the organization, and are committed to helping achieve national priorities in areas such as education, healthcare, energy and environmental sustainability through the upgrade of America’s communications infrastructure.

A central focus for IIA, and identified by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as a national priority, moving all Americans from 20th Century copper telephone lines to 21st Century IP-based networks will ensure faster broadband speeds and meaningfully expanded services. The IIA is dedicated to helping guide the IP Transition with recommendations to fast-track local IP demonstration projects while preserving core consumer values:

a) When the transition is complete, all consumers should be connected with services that are at least as good as what they have now.

b) Public safety must be upheld with access to first responders, as well as access for the vision or hearing impaired.

c) Competition should be encouraged, and consumers should have a place for ready resolution of complaints regarding services.

d) Putting in place a backup plan to keep networks working through power failures and natural disasters must be a chief objective.

Irving brings extensive knowledge and experience that will be invaluable to IIA as it supports the modernization of America’s telephone networks and anachronistic regulations. He played an integral role on the Obama-Biden Transition Team, served for nearly seven years as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information during the Clinton Administration, and as Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), advising the President, Vice President and Secretary of Commerce on domestic and international information technology issues. Irving is widely credited with coining the term the ‘digital divide’ and was the principal author of the landmark Federal survey “Falling Through the Net,” which tracked access to telecommunications across demographic lines. He also was named one of the 50 most influential persons in the ‘Year of the Internet’ by Newsweek.

“I’m thrilled to come home to IIA at such a critical point in time, when policymakers’ decisions truly will determine whether our nation continues leading the world in the broadband race. In addition to profiting America as a whole, getting it right with the IP Transition will enhance consumer benefits with new choices, greater functionality, and better products, services and devices.”