Recap: FCC Open Meeting Launches National Broadband Implementation

On April 21, the Federal Communications Commission started to put the National Broadband Plan into action. FCC Commissioners adopted six items that range from planting the seeds for the Connect America Fund to efforts to bolster cyber security. Giga Om described the meeting as the beginning of the "long process of building a regulatory regime for a broadband-centric — as opposed to telephone-centric — communications world."

Carol Mattey from the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau introduced the Connect America Fund which would directly support broadband without increasing the cost of the existing Universal Service Fund. The proposed Notice of Inquiry considers replacing the "legacy high cost program" with "efficient, targeted funding of networks that can provide data and voice service." FCC Commissioners were overwhelmingly supportive. Reservations expressed arise from their recognition that this is a herculean undertaking. There's a reason it has taken such a long time to enact reform. Chairman Genachowski said, "[reforming Universal Service is a] multi-layered, complex, rubik's cube of a project. It will not be easy. But it is also what we're committed to do...There's no dispute that we need to do this. It's a big challenge."

The FCC also reversed a 2007 order that did not require cell phone carriers to offer roaming services to other carriers in areas where they owned spectrum but had not built out network coverage. Wednesday's vote to abolish home roaming rules for voice services and also opened an inquiry into whether automatic roaming rules should apply to mobile data services. Smaller carriers have argued the existing practice harms consumers since they need roaming agreements while they build out their networks.
The FCC launched an inquiry into a smart video device platform it says will help spur broadband adoption and promote the investment and competition that is something of a Hippocratic oath for broadband. At the same time, it issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on a number of changes to the CableCARD regime that separates channel-surfing and security functions in cable set-tops. The FCC's ultimate goal is to come up with a "gateway" platform that works with all multichannel video providers and that will "spur innovation, draw users to broadband, and change how people perceive and use broadband."

The FCC will study whether the country's broadband networks could handle "significant damage and severe overloads" that could result from terrorist attacks, massive security hacks or national disasters. Interested parties have 45 days to offer comments on the "survivability" of the country's broadband infrastructure, and the ways that federal regulators can boost the nation's cybersecurity. The Commission described the inquiry in a release this afternoon as the "first step in ensuring the FCC can take all necessary actions to ensure ongoing communications in times of disaster or crisis."