By: Laura Phillips
Angie Kronenberg is a 30-year veteran in the communications law industry with extensive public and private sector experience. A former member of the Executive and Nominations Committees, she’s an FCBA lifer, having joined the association as a junior lawyer. I had the opportunity to have lunch with Angie recently and she is a committed FCBA member. Fun fact – while she consistently attempts to leave the annual dinner before the hotel staff breaks down the tables, you often can find her still on the ballroom floor catching up with friends, and the hotel staff kindly requesting that she vacate the ballroom so they can finish up for the evening.
Q. What attracted you to the field of communications?
A. I was fascinated by how government works to enable policies that serve the American people, and I recognized how important our communications networks are in that endeavor. I wanted to be part of the effort to bring competitive, affordable communications options to consumers.
I discovered communications law and policy by studying telecommunications and political science at Baylor University in the late 1980s/early 1990s. My classes often focused on radio, television, and film. They were hands-on; I operated the equipment, wrote and delivered a broadcast, and learned how to edit video. I had an internship with the NBC affiliate (KPRC) in my hometown of Houston. I learned about and helped set up microwave and satellite links when I was in the field with the engineers for live broadcasts with reporters, and I spent time with the sports reporters watching live sports and editing clips for the nightly news. I loved it, but it was my political science classes that hooked me. In one of my policy classes, we tracked Congressional legislation, and I wrote a capstone paper about the Children’s Television Act of 1990, legislation which set forth minimum requirements for airing television programming aimed at children and limited commercial breaks. I was interested in how government policy could address the needs of the public. One day I was talking with a high school friend about my interests, and she talked about a law school in D.C. that had a program focused on these issues. This required a trip to the library to research law schools in D.C. (you couldn’t research something online back then!). I found Catholic University that way and the rest is personal history.
During my time in law school, I interned for the Subcommittee on Telecom and Finance in the House Energy & Commerce Committee, and we were hosting hearings for consideration of the 1994 Telecom Act which ultimately passed in 1996—my first year of practicing law. (I also interned at the FCC’s Mass Media Bureau where I reviewed and summarized comments in the must carry proceeding and helped draft the order language.) I spent a significant part of my early years in law working on the FCC proceedings implementing the 1996 Act.
Then at large firm where I practiced, I represented telecom competitors (CLECs), the cable industry, and satellite providers. I also became a merger/competition analysis expert during that time. Much of what I’ve worked on since 2008 is access to affordable broadband connectivity and all that it offers aligns with my original interest of how good government policy in communications can help ensure Americans are served and can improve their lives.
Q. Tell us about the various places you’ve worked through the years.
A. I started in Big Law where I practiced for a number of years learning from Phil Verveer, the father of modern communications law, and practicing with other very smart lawyers who had 20 plus years of experience practicing before the FCC. I practiced before most of the Bureaus at the FCC. This was a little unusual (even at that firm), but incredibly useful as my career advanced. I worked with our telecom, cable, and satellite clients, and with the corporate team in the New York office on mergers and bankruptcies that required FCC review.
I then moved to the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau where I worked on merger review, managed the annual report on the wireless industry, helped draft the Rural Broadband Report, and was the lead drafter of the first wireless tower shot clock order that was upheld by the Supreme Court in the City of Arlington case. I was introduced to FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn just as she started her work at the agency in 2009. I was fortunate when she asked me to join her staff and manage her work on broadband availability and affordability, reforming the Universal Service Fund, implementing the National Broadband Plan, and merger review/competition analysis.
Working for Commissioner Clyburn has been the highlight of my career. As many of you know, she’s an incredibly gifted politician who cares deeply about meeting the needs of our citizenry, and she was willing to take on hard cases, such as prison phone rate reform and modernizing the Lifeline program, among others that I managed in her office. We also pushed for affordable broadband plans for low-income families which have now been replicated across the industry and became the basis for the Affordable Connectivity Program during Covid.
Post FCC, I was recruited to manage the policy group at an industry trade association. I led its work before the federal and state governments, which led to significant growth in its membership and events and modernized the association to reflect a changing industry. I led on a number of competitive broadband policies through rulemakings, mergers, and court cases. I recently left that association, and I’ve continued my work to advance broadband availability and affordability through my consulting practice.
Q. Have things unfolded in your career more or less the way you planned?
A. Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that I like challenges, and I have chased doing hard things. You must disrupt the status quo to improve the world. My efforts to make my little slice of the world a better place continue. My career has not unfolded anywhere close to what I envisioned because I couldn’t possibly have imagined the evolution of technology during my career. If you had told me in 1990 as a college student that I would be working on broadband availability and affordability for more than half of my career, I would have been befuddled as the internet wasn’t commercially available then. Yet, the work I’ve been doing on broadband for so long fits with what originally drew me to communications law—how to improve lives through good government policies for our communications networks.
Q. What’s the most interesting or challenging thing that you’ve done in your current position?
A. I enjoy managing a team and mentoring. My prior positions included ready-made opportunities for that. My current position, however, has required me to look for new opportunities, and it’s been fun to explore my FCBA, client, and alumni network connections. I’ve been so happy to hear from people who didn’t know me personally but were encouraged to reach out to me from colleagues and friends. I enjoy talking with folks who are exploring their career options.
And working on my own is different than anything I’ve done before—I miss being part of a team, going to an office, comparing notes with colleagues, etc. I’ve tried to replace that with more lunches, coffees, texts, and calls. I enjoy the freedom of working from wherever I like. My son may be surprised that I plan to go back to school with him in the fall and work from his apartment in Tampa—just kidding. But it is nice to be able to have some work location flexibility, and I have been taking advantage of that this summer from Bethany Beach, Delaware.
Q. What do you enjoy reading?
A. During Covid, I started to read more books, and I prefer fiction—although I mix it up a few times a year with some history. Since high school I have read advice columns from a variety of authors. I think I have read every Carolyn Hax column since she started publishing. As some of my friends will tell you, I offer lots of free advice, and I try to be mindful of first asking, do you want me to just listen or do you want my advice (which of course, I learned to do from reading advice columns—LOL!).
Q. Is there something (a hobby or other tidbit) people don’t know about you that you are willing to share?
A. I’m an avid women’s college gymnastics fan. I got into it through my daughter who competed halfway through high school. We started going to local college meets with her team, and we started following LSU gymnastics and she went to summer camp there. (My MIL’s family is from Louisiana, and both my MIL and my husband are LSU alumni.) I attend any LSU meet that’s within a day’s drive from D.C. and on occasion in Baton Rouge. On Friday nights during gymnastics season, you know where to find me—watching the SEC channel’s Friday Night Heights. While my daughter didn’t compete in college, she did go to LSU and graduated last year. She still has a few girls from her club that are competing in college, and several in the SEC. It’s been fun to watch these girls grow up in the sport and compete at the collegiate level. Because I’ve been watching college gymnastics for so long, I’m quite good at predicting the judges’ scores. And LSU won their first national championship last year!
Q. Can you share your perspective on the pitfalls to avoid or other career advice for those who are just getting started in the communications field?
A. First, you’re going to make mistakes and when you do remember what Phil Verveer taught me: we call it the practice of law because we “practice at it.” None of us is perfect. You do your best, own up to your mistakes, and improve based on what you’ve learned.
Second, find mentors who will champion you. Good work reviews are not enough. You need people in your corner who will advocate for you. And if you want to advance and over time it becomes clear that there isn’t a path to do so, find a place where you can achieve what you want.
Third, it is a job, so get a life. I think it’s easy to get sucked into a legal career, and it becomes everything you do. (I am speaking from experience here—although Millennials and Gen Z seem to be doing a better job at this than Gen X.) Find other things that fulfill you—whether it’s your family, friends, a hobby, volunteering, etc. There’s so much more to life than work.
Finally, like life, there will be ups and downs in your career. Most of what happens is completely out of our control, so do what is in your control—do your best, treat people well, and pay it forward as my good friend Bryan Tramont always says.
Q. How has your life changed as a result of COVID-19 and what are you looking forward to doing next?
A. It was such a drastic change during Covid, with our children learning from home and missing so much. For us, it now seems like everything is back to normal, but what would our normal now be if Covid had not happened? That we will never know.
Our daughter missed her high school graduation and prom, and she went to college in the fall of 2020. There was so much uncertainty around that process, but we all came through it. And our son’s high school education was significantly disrupted, but he’s now in college and is doing well.
I was involved in lobbying the Capital Projects Fund and the BEAD and middle mile programs in the Infrastructure Act during Covid and fought (with many allies) for ACP replenishment post-Covid. It is incredible how much our work in the communications field was directly affected by the pandemic and how much is still at stake in getting everyone connected to affordable broadband. During Covid, it was glaringly obvious why people needed affordable broadband connectivity, because kids doing their schoolwork in fast food parking lots is not okay. The fight for affordable connectivity continues, and I continue to do my small part to get everyone connected.
Q. How long have you been an FCBA member, and what to you is the value of FCBA membership?
A. Thirty years. There are so many things about the FCBA to extol. During my early career, it’s how I met some of my closest friends and volunteered in the community. It’s where I gained knowledge through CLEs. It’s where I tear up every year watching the video of high school scholars who have won scholarships from the FCBA Foundation. (Reviewing the applications is one of my favorite annual activities.) And it’s where I attend receptions and annual seminars to catch up with colleagues and meet new friends. I encourage all my colleagues to join because it’s a wonderful association, and we’re incredibly fortunate to have Kerry and her team serve us and all the volunteers on committees who lead us.
I also have to say that as I’ve made my way through a major career transition, the support I’ve received from FCBA colleagues has been incredible. I’ve received so many messages and everyone says yes to coffee, lunch, or a phone call. This association is incredibly special. We oftentimes are working on opposite sides of an issue or case, but it doesn’t matter when it comes to being there for one another.