WASHINGTON, D.C. - From media ownership rules to the future of the telecommunications and wireless sectors, the Federal Communications Commission has been a center of headline-grabbing activity this year. A retrospective on a tumultuous year – and a look toward the future – is the focus of a panel of high-level government and private sector officials at The Progress & Freedom Foundation’s 2003 Aspen Summit, August 17-19, at the St. Regis Hotel, in Aspen, Colorado.

Featuring FCC Commissioners Kathleen Q. Abernathy and Kevin J. Martin, Allegiance Telecom Chairman and CEO Royce Holland, Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association SVP Steven K. Berry, Bell South EVP and U.S. Telecom Association President Margaret Greene and Comcast Corporation VP Joseph W. Waz, Jr., the panel – “The FCC’s Tumultuous Year: Freeing Competitive Markets or Entrenching Managed Competition” – will be held Monday, August 18, at 11:00 a.m. (Mountain). PFF Senior Fellow and Director of Communications Policy Studies Randolph J. May will moderate. Registration: http://www.pff.org/aspen2003/aspen03.htm.

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy J. Muris and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell will deliver major policy addresses at the Aspen Summit, the Foundation has announced. In addition, on April 18, at 9:30 a.m., a “CEO Roundtable” will feature remarks by top executives of Covad, Qwest, SBC and Verizon Wireless. Additional Aspen Summit participants will be announced soon. Following its 1995 debut, the Aspen Summit earned a reputation as the most interesting and important event of its kind. Wired compared it to the Davos summit in Switzerland and the famed Renaissance Weekend. Recent speakers include industry leaders Jeff Bezos, Carly Fiorina, Peter Chernin, Ivan Seidenberg, Les Vadasz and Jack Valenti. Top policymakers, regulators and academics also take part. Members of the audience – who can include the likes of Michael Eisner and John Doerr – contribute mightily to the Aspen Summit’s forward-looking digital policy discussions. See media highlights from the 2002 Summit.

The Progress & Freedom Foundation is a market-oriented think tank that studies the impact of the digital revolution and its implications for public policy. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1993