December 8, 1999
Web posted at: 9:51 a.m. EST (1451 GMT)

In this story: U.S. can't afford 'digital Dark Ages' Critics: Kennard overestimates his power 'Chief referee' for giant businesses The billion-dollar sneezes 'We didn't have a presence on the airwaves' RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Correspondent Sharon Collins

PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- Few Americans have heard of one of the most influential people involved in the high-tech world. But Bill Kennard's modernization mission could reshape the national landscape.

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Managing the net

As chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, which oversees the entire communications industry, Kennard has sought to bring new technologies like the Internet to the farthest reaches of the country. His crusade has taken him just about everywhere, including a desolate stretch of Arizona desert.

With wild horses roaming its parched landscape, the Gila River Indian Reservation seems out of touch with the high-tech world in nearby Phoenix, Arizona. Kennard fears depressed areas like this one are at risk.

"There's a real danger in the country that some Americans have all this wondrous technology and it makes them smarter and more competitive in the workplace and others are left behind," Kennard says.

U.S. can't afford 'digital Dark Ages'

"We can't afford to have in this country a digital Dark Ages where some people are just cut off from all this technology."

In places like the reservation, where some basic modern conveniences are absent, Kennard fears the gap could widen between the haves and the have-nots.

"Forget about the Internet [and] wireless technology, they're waiting for a phone."

The problem of technology access is national and often urban. Kennard has also sought to bring the information age to disadvantaged people to inner cities.

During his recent visit to Vine Street Elementary School in Los Angeles, school officials were just hooking up to the Internet. Kennard had lobbied for the FCC program, which uses profits from long distance companies to subsidize low-income schools.

Critics: Kennard overestimates his power

"By 2000, 60 percent of jobs in America will require facility with computers. I'm not talking about doctors and lawyers. It will be dockworkers and retailers," Kennard says.

Kennard's push for equality goes beyond education. For example, he proposed free television time for political candidates, his version of campaign finance reform. Congress balked and Kennard backed down.

Critics say the FCC chairman overestimates his power. Kennard responds that he works within his rights.

"Some people feel you've overstepped your authority by concentrating on basically social issues. Well I think that if I'm not concentrating on making sure that all Americans have access to technology, I'm not doing my job."

Perhaps most importantly to the business community, Kennard oversees the rapidly expanding communications industry, which now represents about one-sixth of the U.S. economy.

'Chief referee' for giant businesses

"He is essentially the chief referee of multibillion-dollar industries that are coming for favors on special rules," observes investment analyst Scott Cleland.

His responsibilities include overseeing the Internet, which he has preferred so far to remain unregulated.

"It's been an unregulated environment and there's been open competition. Consumers have benefited immensely," Cleland said.

As guardian of radio and television, Kennard has pushed for the wireless world to expand.

"Just think about what's happened in wireless phones in the last few years. Seventy million Americans are using wireless phones."

The billion-dollar sneezes

The chairman can approve or reject giant business mergers. "Every time the FCC sneezes, it is an issue of billions of dollars for U.S. companies and U.S. consumers," says Roy Neel of the United States Telephone Association.

That the Internet could make current business battles obsolete in a few years makes Kennard's job even tougher.

"The difficulty that Chairman Kennard has is he is trying to implement a pre-Internet law in a post-Internet era," Cleland says. "It's very difficult because the Congress couldn't and didn't anticipate the Internet, (which) is changing everything."

'We didn't have a presence on the airwaves'

Kennard, the first African-American to chair the FCC, doesn't shy from racial issues. Accepting an award recently from the Association of Minorities in Communications, he recalled much harder times for blacks in television.

"You remember those days in the 60s and 70s when we didn't have a presence on the airwaves. I can remember vividly in my household when there would be a black face on television. People would literally run out of bedrooms and come into the living room."

He grew up near Los Angeles, his family's house literally underneath the giant white letter sign atop the Hollywood hills. An undergraduate at Stanford and law student at Yale, Kennard had first hoped to wind up in broadcast management.

In a sense he has, heading one of the most controversial agencies in Washington. Asked about his legacy, Kennard replies:

I would like people to say that I gave a voice to the voiceless. Because I truly believe that if we don't make sure that this communications revolution works for everybody, for every American we'll look back and regret it."

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