FCC Chairman Wheeler Visits Data Foundry Texas 1
Yesterday, Data Foundry was privileged to host FCC chairman Tom Wheeler at our Texas 1 data center in Austin, Texas. We were anxious to thank the Chairman for his courageous work in standing up to the monopolistic ISPs and leading the FCC to adopt new open Internet rules earlier this year. To our delight, the Chairman led off the meeting by thanking Data Foundry for its support in fighting for an open Internet for many years.
While the Chairman was at the data center, we discussed the difference between the competitive commercial Internet that runs through Texas 1 and the monopolistic residential onramp to the Internet that consumers are stuck with. Data Foundry currently has 18 fiber carriers “on-net” at Texas 1, and the competition means prices are competitive and our customers have choice. We told the Chairman, we’d love to see consumers have that kind of choice as well.
FCC Chairman Wheeler with Ed Henigin in Data Foundry’s Texas 1 Carrier Neutral Fiber Room
Data Foundry, CTO Edward Henigin noted that absence of competition, regulation is necessary, but that competition is the ultimate form of regulation.
We also talked about the FCC’s role in the fight for online privacy as they will in the near future evaluate Verizon’s “supercookies” program. They’ll also hold an upcoming workshop on broadband consumer privacy. We are pleased to see the FCC will fight for consumer online privacy.
Finally, though the Chairman has toured many data centers, we took him through Texas 1, to showcase the redundant power, cooling and robust physical security of a state-of-the art facility. We also took him into the Fiber Room, where our 18 carriers connect into Texas One. That’s where the open Internet starts!