Monday, July 27th, 2009
From BroadbandCensus.com Weekly Report
WASHINGTON, July 27, 2009 – The National Broadband Plan took a Great Leap Forward last week as the Federal Communications Communication accepted reply comments on Tuesday (first-round filings were due June 8) in its mammoth proceeding.
By February 17, 2010, the FCC is charged with producing this national plan, and it appears to be taking this responsibility very seriously. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has recruited Blair Levin, himself a contender for the top FCC slot, to run this plan, and the agency appears to be gearing up to run full steam through August with a series of public workshops.
In the reply comments filed last week, a divide was apparent between providers, who urged the FCC to be cautious in its scope, and tech companies and content providers who appeared to be the agency’s key cheerleaders in its ambition to bring cheap, universal broadband throughout the nation.
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Monday, June 8th, 2009
By Douglas Streeks, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, June 8, 2009 – Industry representatives and advocacy groups of all stripes flooded the Federal Communications Commission's inbox Monday with a wide-ranging array of comments on the scope and direction of the agency's role in crafting a national broadband plan.
The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act passed in February charges the commission with providing a report to Congress on a national strategy by February 17, 2009. The deadline for interested parties to file comments with the commission was midnight on Monday.
Facilities-based competition, rather than regulation should factor heavily into the commission's plans, Progress and Freedom Foundation President Ken Ferree and Senior Fellow Barbara Esbin wrote. Market forces and not regulation, should determine the level of openness and "network intermediary functionality" available on any network, they added.
“There is no evidence of broad market failure justifying regulatory intervention in the majority of broadband markets," Ferree and Esbin said in a related statement. "Providers should have maximum flexibility to experiment with service offerings, rates, terms, and conditions to encourage competition.” The primary regulatory goal of the FCC should be to ensure Americans can access at least one broadband provider with "broadband capability," they said – especially in currently unserved...
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Thursday, April 30th, 2009
By Andrew Feinberg, Deputy Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, April 30, 2009 - The White House announced its intention to nominate South Carolina Public Service Commissioner Mignon Clyburn to the Federal Communications Commission late Wednesday.
If confirmed, Clyburn would fill the Democratic seat being vacated by Democrat Jonathan Adelstein, who has been tapped to run the Agriculture Department's Rural Utility Service. She would also fill a seat on the FCC that is by custom occupied by a state-level commissioner, previously Republican Deborah Taylor Tate, who was a director of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority before serving on the FCC during the Bush administration.
Clyburn, the daughter of House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., was first elected to the South Carolina Public Service Commission in 1998. South Carolina PSC members are elected officials who serve four year, staggered terms.
Clyburn has also been in charge of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners' Washington Action Program for the past three years, coordinating lobbying efforts by state utility commissioners.
Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps hailed the White House announcement of Clyburn, calling her "an excellent choice" to join the commission. "The experience she brings...will be an invaluable asset as we address the many challenges and opportunities that are before us,"...
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Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
By Andrew Feinberg, Deputy Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, April 23, 2009 - Congressional scrutiny of consumer privacy on broadband networks, especially uses of so-called “deep packet inspection” technology, ramped up Thursday as industry representatives and consumer advocates testified before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet.
"Broadband networks are a primary driver of the national economy," said subcommittee chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va. It is "fundamentally in the nation's interest to promote their expanded use," he said.
Boucher acknowledged that technologies like DPI have beneficial uses for network management and law enforcement. But DPI's potential for invading consumer privacy is "nothing short of frightening," he said.
Boucher, who has previously stated his commitment to passing comprehensive privacy legislation during the 111th Congress, announced that his subcommittee would hold a joint hearing with the Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection subcommittee early this summer which would focus privacy and Internet-based companies like Google.
Boucher hinted that the privacy bill, which he wants to develop on a bipartisan basis, would be based largely on the Consumer Privacy Protection Act introduced in the 109th Congress by then-Chairman Cliff Stearns, R-Fla.
Stearns, now the ranking member of the subcommittee, cautioned against acting too swiftly against new technologies before...
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Friday, April 3rd, 2009
By Andrew Feinberg, Deputy Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, April 3, 2009 - The NTIA/RUS broadband grant program is "a landmark opportunity" for the cable industry, House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., said Thursday during a speech at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association's annual convention here.
Boucher praised the industry for its investment in infrastructure which now passes 92 percent of American homes. He said that the broadband stimulus grant program of the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service was an opportunity to bring broadband to Americans who lack the ability to receive it.
Boucher said he was optimistic that with coming improvements in content delivery and bandwidth capacity, the U.S. will soon pass countries like Japan and South Korea in broadband speeds available to the home.
"You're the leader in providing broadband across our country," Boucher said, referring to the cable industry.
Boucher said he was disappointed by the nation's 16th place ranking in broadband availability.
Broadband is as necessary for economic performance in today's world as electricity and the telephone service were in times past, he said.
Communities need broadband to compete in the 21st century economy, Boucher said. He called for the cable...
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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 2
By Andrew Feinberg, Deputy Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, March 24, 2009 - NTIA and RUS broadband stimulus grant recipients should be selected in a way that honors the intent of the stimulus bill itself, a large group of stakeholders said at Tuesday afternoon's roundtable on selection criteria.
The second of three panels on the last day of public meetings on the broadband program by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service dealt with how grant-making authorities should choose which programs to fund.
Stakeholders had widely differing views on how to determine a proposal's worthiness.
The statutory guidelines provide a good start in determining standards, said National Cable and Telecommunications Association Associate General Counsel Steve Morris. Morris invoked President Obama's call for a transparent process, and said it be governed by a merit-based system of seven objective measurements to be shared between NTIA and RUS.
Job creation and preservation should be first and foremost among the selection criteria, Morris said. Preference should also be given to those applicants that can complete build-out within the statutory time periods, and that are able to maintain projects afterwards.
Infrastructure should be built out first the...
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Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
News
By Andrew Feinberg, Deputy Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, March 18, 2009 - A White Paper released Tuesday by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association recommends broadband stimulus grants prioritize built-out to remote, unserved areas. Remaining monies should be used to fund programs to promote and encourage use of broadband services.
"Broadband is a crucial driver of economic recovery and global competitiveness," said
the report, "Moving the Needle on Broadband: Stimulus Strategies to Spur Adoption and Extend Access Across America."
The paper acknowledges that the grant programs established by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act can help bring broadband to the "small percentage of the nation's homes" that have no physical line connecting them to broadband networks, "to ensure that broadband fulfills its full promise as an engine of job creation... educational and healthcare opportunities."
But the grant program must follow the Hippocratic principle of "first, do no harm" to existing industry efforts, some of which dwarf the $7.2 billion allocated in the stimulus, said the report.
This can be accomplished by making competitively and technologically neutral grants to reach the approximately 10 million households without broadband, said the report. Once it is determined where most of these homes are - a task made more...
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