Friday, November 13th, 2009
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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Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
WASHINGTON, August 12, 2009 - With just two days away from the deadline to apply for federal funds to cultivate broadband projects across the nation, telecommunications experts offered their advice on the future of the grants process.
Casey Lide, an attorney with the Baller Herbst Law Group, said during the webinar hosted by Governing.com that he believes there will be two more rounds of funding for these types of projects although acknowledged that a third round isn’t guaranteed.
Lide expects future rounds may not focus as intently on getting broadband to the unserved and underserved parts of the country, as the first round has done.
“There was quite a lot of surprise and disappointment [about that focus] among the local government community,” he said. “There was a perception that…the program focused too much on the unserved and underserved” at the expense of other, innovative high-bandwidth projects.
He sees the first round of funding as an attempt to create a “thin skinned layer of broadband in rural areas of the country.”
Lide said local folks are hoping that the next rounds will be “more friendly” to local governments and municipalities.
Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs Jeff Arnold, who works for the National Association of Counties, said counties...
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Sunday, April 5th, 2009
By Andrew Feinberg, Deputy Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, April 5, 2009 - Proper oversight of the $7.2 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program can only take place if key terms are defined properly, a panel of agency officials and policy experts told a congressional committee on Thursday.
The broadband stimulus programs can succeed only if the eventual definition of "unserved areas" is "sensible," said Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet.
Boucher is concerned that areas that have a "smattering" of broadband service might be excluded from the definition of "unserved" areas. Agencies must also exercise care when defining what constitutes an "underserved" area in order to maximize market competition, Boucher said.
“Uunderserved" should also encompass areas with low available speeds, Boucher said.
But Boucher cautioned that the stimulus program should not be confused with a national broadband strategy, which the Federal Communications Commission is tasked with designing. The FCC is scheduled to take up the task at its April 8 meeting.
Such a strategy could include expanding universal service fund support to include broadband, he said, and indicated his subcommittee would continue to be "actively involved in looking at ways to achieve universal broadband deployment."
Ranking member...
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Saturday, April 4th, 2009
By Andrew Feinberg, Deputy Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, April 4, 2009 - Making broadband applications more relevant in underserved and unserved communities could be a better use of stimulus funds than building infrastructure, a group of state and local regulatory officials Friday at a cable industry show here.
The lack of relevance to users is definitely the "largest barrier to broadband adoption," said John Horrigan, associate research director at the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Dealing with the issue properly will require infrastructure programs to be combined with "training and support" initiatives to improve overall digital literacy, said Horrigan.
In addition to focusing on rural areas, California Public Utility Commissioner Rachelle Chong said that "urban disadvantaged" communities is an area in which her state is actively involved through the California Emerging Technology Fund. The fund paid for computer refurbishing programs and technology training in low-income communities.
But California has bigger plans, she said, including a "digital literacy" policy for the state's entire education system.
One "big think" project that could come next year is the distribution of laptop computers to all students in the lowest performing middle schools, along with appropriate technology training for teachers, students, and their parents. Chong later said California could possibly submit...
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Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
By Jesse Masai, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, April 2, 2009 - The role of states in the communications landscape were discussed in a Wednesday panel of state public utility commissioners at the Cable Show here.
Among the issues explored included: “network diversity,” regulatory treatment of voice over internet protocol, or (VoIP), cable telephony, demand for broadband, universal service and inter-carrier compensation.
“From franchise authorization to telecom authorization, state policy makers have the power to shape the communications landscape on a range of issues,” said Richard Cimerman, vice president for state government affairs at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.
The panel of four all agreed on the supervisory and regulatory role of states, before delving into the experiences of their individual states.
John Burke, a member at the Vermont Public Service Board, said state involvement in 21st century communications policy would create more jobs and avoid wastage of money.
“Involving states in spending stimulus funds for technology is a better answer that may preserve some of those dollars,” he said.
Of households in Vermont, 66 percent have broadband, he said. And he pleaded: “Give us incentives to feel a part of this process.”
The debate in rural America, he said, was not just one of access, but also affordability.
Robert...
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Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
News | NTIA-RUS Forum | Day 6, Session 1
By Jesse Masai, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, March 24, 2009 – At the final day of a six-day public forum about the federal government’s $7.2 billion broadband stimulus funding on Tuesday morning, the discussion made a sharp turn toward a focus on oversight and post-award compliance.
The forums, sponsored by the Commerce Department’s National Technology and Information Administration and the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service, addressed the parameters of the program being put in place at the two agencies because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the fiscal stimulus package.
Beth McConnell, executive director of the Media and Democracy Coalition, a coalition of public interest media advocacy groups in the states and in Washington, said there was need to “ensure grantees are accountable to the congressional intent in the Recovery Act” and that “grantees are complying with the rules and agreements.”
“To address both, we need clear and concrete objectives in grant contracts, strong rules to hold them to, and good data to evaluate,” she said. Companies should not be able to evade these conditions by selling their contracts, she said.
Additionally, said McConnell, all funded projects should contain a component that will measurably increase adoption. She...
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Monday, March 16th, 2009
News
By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, March 16, 2009 – As the Obama administration on Monday begins poring over the nitty-gritty details about how they will be spending $7.2 billion in broadband stimulus funds, individual states are grappling to find their own best strategies to tap the funds.
At the public meeting on March 10, officials at the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration made clear that the broadband grants – unlike the past several decades’ trend toward “block grants” – will not be channeled through states.
Rather, with the exception that at least one grant be awarded within each state, the NTIA’s broadband grants will up for grabs by the most qualified applicant.
But that hasn’t discouraged representatives from states and state groups.
In fact, many are quite pleased with the way the broadband stimulus program is taking shape, and are eager to have their voice heard in the next phase of the broadband stimulus process.
Among their grounds for optimism:
- States and their political subdivisions are themselves eligible to receive grants through the various broadband programs of the NTIA and the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service.
- States have the on-the-ground knowledge about particular communications needs that positions them to play the kind of coordinative and...
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Sunday, February 15th, 2009
News
By Andrew Feinberg, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, February 15, 2009 – State regulatory commissioners are split on how strongly to express longstanding grievances with Federal Communications Commission processes. A resolution on reform of FCC management and practices dominated the agenda as the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners continued its winter meeting Sunday.
The resolution, sponsored by Washington State Commissioner Phillip Jones, has been amended multiple times NARUC's staff subcommittee on telecommunications since it was introducted late Friday.
The original draft resolution was a straightforward, one-page document which welcomed changes at the commission by the new Obama administration, while calling attention to often-cited criticisms of the lack of transparency in operations, the slow pace of action on dockets and delay in open opening new ones, as well as barriers to intra-agency cooperation.
The tenure of former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin was notorious among industry observers for a lack of communication across the FCC’s bureaus and offices. A common criticism of Martin's chairmanship was that bureaus were effectively forbidden from sharing information among themselves, or even with the other four commissioners or their staffs. Acting Chairman Michael Copps said reversing Martin-era restrictions is a high priority for his reform agenda.
The staff subcommittee met Sunday afternoon to...
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