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By Andrew Feinberg, Deputy Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, November 18, 2009 - The Universal Service Fund is in need of an overhaul to equalize costs among stakeholders and modernize programs to include broadband services, a group of industry representatives and regulators told the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet during a Tuesday hearing. The hearing examined a discussion draft of the Universal Service Reform Act of 2009, authored by subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb. The Universal Service program, which existed for decades before being codified in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, is under "tremendous pressure" and requires a comprehensive effort to reform its operations, Boucher said during opening remarks. Reform is needed because new technologies for long distance voice communications have reduced the available revenue that can be tapped to fund current programs, leading to soaring costs for consumers – a projected 14 percent of revenues in January of 2010, he said. Such an increase and a maintenance of the status quo is simply "not sustainable," Boucher said. The Boucher-Terry bill would cap the high cost portion of the fund while requiring wireless carriers who participate to do so through a competitive bidding process. Such legislative...

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By Mercy Gakii, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, November 13, 2009 - Access charges are well above the actual costs to connect telephone calls, despite the efforts made by the Federal Communications Commission, said Andy Regitsky of Regitsky and Associates, in a webinar presentation on “Access Charges and Network costs - A Guide to FCC Reform,” hosted by CCMI. “The FCC is not ready to give control over access charges which have been flawed for the 25 years of their existence,” said Regitsky. Regitsky said that access reform is an urgent issue that needs to be addressed, with the national broadband plan due to be presented to Congress in February 2010. The plan will likely require universal service changes. Most internet telephone companies – including Google Voice – have become enmeshed in controversy for refusing to pay access charges for terminating some voice calls. Currently, he said, the FCC must work with different state public utility commissions on the thorny question of equalizing telephone calls that cross state lines and those that stay within the boundaries of a particular territory. Interstate calls are under the jurisdiction of the FCC, and access charges for those calls tend to be lower than calls within a state. “If...

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By Mercy Gakii, Reporter-Researcher,  BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, November 11, 2009 - The creation of a “smart grid” for electricity conservation may lead to parallel telecommunications networks by both utilities and traditional telephone communications providers; whether or not this was a positive development was debated at the Broadband Breakfast Club on Tuesday. The “smart grid” enables communications about electric transmissions over that electric infrastructure. Broadband, or high-speed internet access, has traditionally occurred over telephone, cable or wireless networks. Broadband over power lines (BPL) is a form of internet access over the electric infrastructure. All of these technologies are competing for consumers and business customers. Whether utilities will continue to use electric lines for transmitting BPL, or shift to fiber-optics or wireless infrastructures – whether self-built or managed by traditional carriers like Verizon Communications and AT&T – prompted debate at the November breakfast club, on “Setting the Table for the National Broadband Plan: The Environment.” Kevin Moss, head of corporate social responsibility at BT Americas, said that telecommunications hoped to provide communicative capabilities as utilities need more of it to satisfy “smart grid” requirements. But Cynthia Brumfeld, director of research for the Utilities Telecom Council, said that utility companies require that communications systems exhibit a high degree of...

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By Winter Casey, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, October 29, 2009 – Microsoft and Yahoo on Thursday gingerly weighed into the Federal Communications Commission’s proposed rules governing internet access – otherwise known as “Net neutrality” – that were announced last week. The two companies offered up, to BroadbandCensus.com, carefully crafted comments splitting the difference between the hardening battle lines between Google and AT&T. “Yahoo! believes that all stakeholders - consumers, ISPs, online portals, Congress, the FCC and the FTC - should find a consensus on how best to ensure that Americans have access to a world-class Internet and an increasingly competitive online environment,” said Yahoo! spokeswoman Nina Blackwell. “We have modeled openness on our network – prominent examples include our new front page and cloud computing issues.” “Microsoft supports the right of consumers to access Internet content, services, and applications of their choice and to connect any non-harmful device to their broadband connections,” said a Microsoft spokesman. “We also believe that Congress should ensure that network operators are able to offer last mile service enhancements and tiers of service, either to consumers or to online service providers and that those enhanced offerings must not unfairly interfere with the ability of consumers to access online content, products, and...

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By Winter Casey, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com WASHINGTON, October 28, 2009 - Google told the Federal Communications Commission Wednesday that its Google Voice service currently is restricting calls to fewer than 100 specific phone numbers that it believes are involved in the business of adult sex chats. Google provided a detailed response (PDF) Wednesday to questions posed by the FCC concerning Google Voice’s practice of preventing calls to certain telephone number prefixes. The FCC launched the investigation after AT&T filed a complaint that Google was limiting outbound Google Voice calls to phone numbers in a small number of rural areas. Google claimed it did this because certain local phone carriers' charge exorbitant termination rates for calls and partner with adult sex chat lines and conference calling centers to drive high volumes of traffic otherwise known as “traffic pumping.” But Google said Wednesday that its engineers have developed a solution for restricting calls to specific numbers. In its blog post, Google linked to an article from last year about its current foe, AT&T, who claimed in the story that the practice of pumping was costing the company hundreds of millions of dollars. “To prevent these schemes from exploiting the free nature of...

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By the Staff of BroadbandCensus.com

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski has appointed persons to serve on the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council. Genachowski also designated William Smith, representing AT&T, and Chris Fischer, representing the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, International as Co-Chairs of the group. The members represent a diverse and balanced mix of viewpoints from public safety organizations, Federal, state and local government agencies, the communications industry, and public interest organizations, said the FCC. The Council, a Federal Advisory Committee, will provide recommendations to the Commission regarding best practices and actions that the Commission can take to ensure optimal security, reliability, and interoperability of communications systems, including telecommunications, media and public safety communications systems. On March 19, 2009, the FCC renewed the charter for the CSRIC for two years. Under its charter, CSRIC’s duties include recommending "best practices" to promote reliable 911 and enhanced 911 (E911) service, interoperability of public safety communications systems, analyzing and recommending technical options to enable accurate and reliable dynamic E911 location identification for interconnected intenet telephone service. It also includes recommending ways to improve Emergency Alert...

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By the Staff of BroadbandCensus.com

As the Federal Communications Commission prepares to tackle the issue of Network neutrality at its October 22 meeting, major telecommunications carriers have all been sending letters to the FCC and newspapers in an effort to influence the agency actions. AT&T top lobbyists James Cicconi, Senior Executive Vice President at the company, recently sent out a memo to all of the company’s managers criticizing Net neutrality. Titled, “Let your voice be heard: Internet regulation is bad for consumers, jobs, investment and universal broadband,” the memo said that Net neutrality rules would lead to job losses and decrease of choices. “The FCC shouldn't burden an industry that is bringing jobs and investment to the country, but if it is going to regulate the Internet it should do so fairly,” the letter read. “The goal of the FCC should be to maintain a level playing field by treating all competitors the same. Any new rules should apply equally to network providers, search engines and other information services providers.” Supporters of Net neutrality have been just as vocal in trying to reach out to the FCC and the public in order to show support. On Tuesday morning “Father of the Internet” Vincent Cerf...

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By Rahul Gaitonde, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, October 9, 2009 - The Federal Communications Commission workshop on economic issues in broadband competition on October 9 brought together regulators and academics, who agreed that regulation of the broadband market would be difficult and different compared to old-style telecommunications. Judith Chevalier of Yale University, explained that while economic models do exist and can be useful they are not perfect. “There are big gaps between these models and the world we see.” She said that there are too many variables for a truly perfect model to be created. Hence one must look at the market to predict the outcome of any regulation – and not just rely on a result from an econometric model. Echoing a refrain of almost every workshop, Chevalier said that in order to create a better model, “we need more and better data”. In answer to the question of whether “there a duopoly in the broadband market,” almost everyone said yes. However this duopoly in the wireline market may soon be losing its bite, as incumbent telecommunications carriers begin to compete more aggressively with cable companies. Additionally, panelists said, mobile broadband is becoming more of a substitute than a complement to the wireline options. Looking at...

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