OPASTCO tenacious in opposition to National Broadband Plan

The Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunication Companies has problems with the National Broadband Plan.

OPASTCO President John Rose says:

• The plan's goal of ensuring that all Americans can get broadband at speeds of at least 4 Mb/s is too low to support some of the plan's other goals, particularly those involving education and health care. And although the National Broadband Plan calls for reviewing bandwidth requirements every four years, OPASTCO thinks a yearly review would be more appropriate.
• If small carriers are required to move off rate of return regulation and into a price cap approach, they could have difficulty obtaining the funding from lenders that would be required for them to continue to invest in their networks. Lenders liked the predictability that the rate of return approach offered, and without that predictability they will view loans to small carriers as more risky.
• Despite the plan's recognition that intercarrier compensation reform would need to go hand in hand with Universal Service reform, the organization has not seen intercarrier compensation given commensurate priority.