February 2007

Members of Congress

"[E]ven discounting for some of the differences in nations ahead of us, one thing is clear - we are not number 1. America needs a better plan. Unfortunately, we are still at the stage that having any broadband plan at all would represent an improvement."

"[T]he overarching goal of the Subcommittee's agenda is to fashion together a policy blueprint to make broadband service ubiquitous and affordable broadband for every American. Our end goal will be consumer choice, affordability, high bandwidth speeds, full build-out, high quality of service, and an open architecture that supports Internet freedom -- in short, an infrastructure for the 21st Century."

-- Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) Feb 1, 2007 in address to Consumer Federation of America's Consumer Assembly
http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2577&Itemid=141

"I don’t see much of an Administration strategy at all. And I am concerned about it."
-- Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) statement at Senate Commerce Committee Hearing "Assessing the Communications Marketplace" Feb 1, 2007
http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Statement&Statement_ID=182

“Just as President Roosevelt recognized a responsibility to make electricity available to rural families in his New Deal, and just as President Eisenhower recognized the necessity of a National Highway System that would enable substantial economic growth in the country, it is time for us to make this technology available to the hard-to-reach communities that need it – rural and urban,” “In contrast to Roosevelt’s sweeping changes, this administration has pledged ubiquitous Broadband access by 2007, but has taken few concrete actions to achieve that goal. On the contrary, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seems intent to inexplicably drag its feet on this measure – despite broad bipartisan support in the Congress, as indicated by the Senate Commerce Committee’s unanimous acceptance of a similar measure last year.”
-- Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) "Kerry Introduces Wireless Innovation Act to Spur New Broadband Connections" Jan 10, 2007
http://kerry.senate.gov/v3/cfm/record.cfm?id=267392

"History shows that the United States is fully capable of being the world leader in technology, but our preeminence is threatened. We must devise a strategy to regain and retain our edge….
We must engage in a concerted effort to regain our place as the world leader in communications services. There is no one answer, but we must make improving access to broadband services, modernizing universal service, funding federal research in new communications and information technology, and promoting competition national priorities.

This Congress, the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will push forward to identify barriers to, and opportunities for, forward progress in these areas. We plan to hold a series of hearings at which we will ask experts, regulators, and representatives of the public to provide us their insights and recommendations, so that we may develop a comprehensive strategy for broadband innovation and access for all.

Policymakers and companies must work together to find the answers to ensure America is competitive in the world."
-- Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) "We can be the world leader in communications technology", The Hill, Feb 6, 2007
http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/020607/sf_inouye.html

"The President set an ambitious goal for universal broadband access by 2007, yet, like many Administration initiatives, offered no specific benchmarks or policy directives. The lack of an up-to-date, comprehensive strategy forces the communications sector to muddle through a landscape marked by disparate government programs. 2007 has arrived and it remains unclear who, if anyone, in the Administration is taking up the mantle of assuring affordable broadband access to those who most need it…. We should have a comprehensive national strategy to ensure affordable and robust broadband for all Americans…. For the United States to maintain its global leadership in the information economy, it’s time for a better broadband policy that serves all Americans."
-- Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) "Affordable broadband for everyone" The Hill, Feb 6, 2007
http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/020607/sf_dingell.html

"As our nation moves farther into the digital age, there are several important issues that Congress should consider which will dramatically affect the way millions of Americans communicate. These issues include reforming universal service, easing the transition to digital television, and encouraging Internet access."
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) "Communications issues still need Congress’s attention" The Hill, Feb 6, 2007
http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/020607/sf_stevens.html

"This is akin to the building of the railroads ... or the Interstate highway system. The building of broadband will allow people in this state to be in touch with other countries. ... It opens up the entire world."
-- Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WVA) "Summit Focuses on Broadband Growth in W.Va." WTRF-TV, Wheeling (WF). Paul Darst
http://www.wtrf.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=14328

"There are parts of the U.S. that do not have broadband service at all... I think we have a clear role for government to play in terms of filling that gap."
-- Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA)"Boucher: Net neutrality stalls broadband measure" FCW.com John Monroe. Sept 11, 2006
http://www.fcw.com/article96017-09-11-06-Web%26RSS=yes

FCC Commissioners

"We must upgrade our communications infrastructure in every corner of this country. And we must do a better job of making innovative communications technologies more widely available and affordable to everyone. All of our citizens should have the opportunity to maximize their potential through communications, no matter where they live or what challenges they face. To promote the communications needs of everyone in this country, we should focus on improving access to broadband services, modernizing universal service, and protecting diversity, competition, and localism in our media."
-- Jonathan Adelstein Feb 1, 2007. Testimony before Senate Commerce Committee
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-270200A1.doc

"We need to undertake a multipronged approach, because we have terrible data. We need a national broadband strategy with thresholds, and we need to create incentives for innovation and competition. We also need to commit some USF (funding) for this as well."
-- Adelstein at Senate Commerce Committee hearing Feb 1, 2007 as reported by TelecomWeb -- "Senate Committee Grills Full FCC Panel"
http://www.telecomweb.com/tnd/21518.html

"If we are going to ensure that no community, no citizen, is left behind by lack of access to basic or advanced telecommunications in this new digital age, we need to think anew, adjust our policies and craft the proper incentives. We must include these new opportunity-creating technologies as part of our Universal Service Program. In plainer English, it is time to bring broadband into the Universal Service System. We must also update and broaden the USF contribution base. We must make sure funds are distributed with maximum equity among consumers, areas and technologies. And we must recognize that the economics of non-rural, rural and truly remote service areas are fundamentally different.

"Permit me to begin by emphasizing the importance of a USF commitment to broadband because this is, far and away, the most meaningful step we can take to create opportunity for our citizens, to ensure community development in every area of our country and to keep our nation competitive in the global economy. Broadband is the great network and infrastructure challenge of our time. If you double back through the years of this nation’s history, you will find that just about every formative era has had its own major infrastructure challenge. Go back to the very beginning as settlers pushed into the frontier and populated new lands. Their infrastructure challenge was to develop ways to deliver their produce and products to increasingly far-away markets. So they found ways to build roads and turnpikes and canals and ports to meet that challenge. Later, as we industrialized, the need was to lay a railway grid, first across regions and then across the country, climaxed by the great saga of the Transcontinental railroads as we became a continental power following the Civil War. Closer to our own era, in the Eisenhower years as suburbs grew and our demography changed, came the Interstate Highway System binding the country more closely together. We saw it in communications, too, in extending telephone service to rural America with the Rural Electrification amendments under Harry Truman and with the Universal Service Fund that we are gathered here to discuss this morning. In all of these infrastructure build-outs, there was a critical role for government, business and local community organizations to work together toward a great national objective. This is really the American Story. It’s how we built our nation and how we grew. It is, I believe, the only way we will continue to grow it.

"From where I sit, broadband networks are the canals and railroads and highways of the digital age. Our future will be in significant measure decided by how we master, or fail to master, advanced communications networks and how quickly and how well we build out broadband connectivity.

"So first we need to look at what part Universal Service should play in meeting this great infrastructure challenge."
-- FCC Commissioner Michael Copps in testimony before Senate Commerce Committee march 1, 2007
http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Testimony&Hearing_ID=1819&Witness_ID=1944

"I think the FCC’s—and the nation’s—greatest challenge is to bring the wonders of modern technology to all our people: to the inner city and to our distant farms and ranches, to tribal lands, to our disabled and challenged fellow citizens, to our poorest citizens and our oldest citizens. We simply cannot afford to leave anyone behind without leaving America behind. Right now, your country and mine is 21st in the world when it comes to broadband digital opportunity and that’s according to the International Telecommunications Union. How can we expect a generation of students to enter the digital classroom at dial-up speed? How will they compete as individuals? But wait a minute—we’re paying a business, competitive cost, too. Fewer Americans with broadband means a smaller Internet marketplace and a glass ceiling over the productivity of small businesses and entrepreneurs in too much of our great land. But, then again, what did we expect without having a real broadband strategy?

"I hope this Congress will push the FCC to be a more proactive participant in developing a strategy and developing solutions. Have us gather better statistics about our country’s woeful broadband situation. Set our agency’s talented engineers and policy gurus to work writing reports and teeing up options for you to consider about how we can inject life back into our nation’s stagnant broadband market. Keep our feet to the fire to encourage innovation, competition and the provision of advanced telecommunications to all our people. The present situation is far too grave to allow the great technological resources of the FCC to be anything less than 100% engaged."
-- Commissioner Michael Copps Feb 1, 2007. Testimony before Senate Commerce Committee
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-270194A1.doc

"I am really worried that we can go into 21st century with such a divide, with all of these wonderful services. If we don't get broadband out there, kids can't compete. And it has a business application, too. What if you want to start a business in a rural area and you don't have high-speed Internet, but your competitors do?"
-- Copps at Senate Commerce Committee hearing Feb 1, 2007 as reported by TelecomWeb -- "Senate Committee Grills Full FCC Panel"
http://www.telecomweb.com/tnd/21518.html

"America's record in expanding broadband communication is so poor that it should be viewed as an outrage by every consumer and businessperson in the country. Too few of us have broadband connections, and those who do pay too much for service that is too slow.

"We need a broadband strategy for America. Other industrialized countries have developed national broadband strategies. In the United States we have a campaign promise of universal broadband access by 2007, but no strategy for getting there. With less than two months to go, we aren't even within shouting distance.

"The solution to our broadband crisis must ultimately involve public-private initiatives like those that built the railroad, highway and telephone systems. Combined with an overhaul of our universal service system to make sure it is focusing on the needs of broadband, this represents our best chance at recapturing our leadership position.

It seems plain enough that our present policies aren't working. Inattention and muddling through may be the path of least resistance, but they should not and must not represent our national policy on this critical issue."
-- Commissioner Copps "America's Internet Disconnect" Washington Post. November 8, 2006.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/07/AR2006110701230.html

"As far as I can tell, we're the only country on the face of God's green earth that doesn't have a broadband strategy."
-- Commissioner Copps "Summit Focuses on Broadband Growth in W.Va." WTRF-TV, Wheeling (WF). Paul Darst
http://www.wtrf.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=14328

"Broadband access is essential to an expanding Internet-based information economy. Creating a policy environment that speeds the deployment of broadband throughout the U.S. is my highest priority as the new chairman of the FCC."....
"The dramatic growth in broadband services depicted in this report proves that we are well on our way to accomplishing the president's goal of universal, affordable access to broadband by 2007."
-- Chairman Kevin Martin, "United States of Broadband" op-ed in Wall Street Journal July 7, 2005
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-259927A1.doc or

"As I have said on several occasions, promoting the deployment of broadband is the Commission’s
highest priority. I intend to do whatever I can to help meet the President’s goal of
'universal and affordable access for broadband technology by the year 2007.'"
-- WRONG CITE: Chairman Kevin Martin remarks at NARUC Summer Meeting July 26, 2005
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-260312A1.pdf

National Telecommunications and Information Administration
REVISITING BUSH'S BROADBAND GOALS
[SOURCE: Technology Daily 1/30, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
In 2004, President Bush set a goal of affordable high-speed Internet access for all Americans by 2007. The target year is here, but has the goal been met? The answer may hinge on the meaning of the word "by." John Kneuer, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which advises the White House on communications policy, said Bush clearly meant the end of 2007 as the timeframe. In that case, he is confident that the objective will be achieved. Kneuer believes that less than 10% of households cannot receive broadband and that the vast majority of households have a choice of providers. Kneuer emphasized that broadband investment has grown precipitously since the FCC in 2005 classified broadband via phone networks as a lightly regulated service. The FCC and NTIA freed additional spectrum last year, encouraging more carriers to offer wireless high-speed Internet service. "We are the number one broadband marketplace in the world" as measured by total subscribers and investment, he said. Kneuer added that Iceland, with 74,000 broadband connections, is first in one survey that ranks the U.S., with 64 million subscribers, as 12th in the world.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-NGLL1170274210860.html

Jim Baller and Casey Lide, the Baller Herbst Law Group
Whether one agrees or disagrees with the details of President Bush's broadband policies, most of us would surely agree with his observation in his most recent State of the Union address that America's ability to remain competitive in the "dynamic world economy" is at risk. Noting the rapid emergence of competition from India, China, and other countries, he challenged America to take the dramatic steps necessary to ensure that we will continue to occupy the position of global leadership to which we have become accustomed.
http://www.baller.com/pdfs/baller-lide_fiberprism.pdf

“This country needs a national goal for…the spread of broadband technology by the year 2007, and then we ought to make sure as soon as possible thereafter, consumers have got plenty of choices when it comes to [their] broadband carrier.”
--President George W. Bush, March 26, 2004

Charles H. Giancarlo, Cisco
Broadband “arguably America's most important infrastructure issue for global competitiveness. The massive productivity gains made possible by the first wave of Internet advances in this country will not be replicated with a second wave without universal, high-speed broadband access. This will benefit both the consumer and industry alike. The first wave of Internet technology was developed by U.S. companies because of our large domestic market demand. In the global marketplace, if we don't drive the buildout of Internet 2.0 here in the United States, the vendors who benefit from international buildouts, will likely not be here, reducing U.S. competitiveness.

The time for a national broadband plan is now. We need to set national goals and hold our service providers, regulators and legislators accountable for meeting these goals. A few things that I think will help immediately; 1) The government hurts innovation when yesterday's rules are used for today's technology, including Internet phone service; 2) With regular phone service penetration nearly universal, develop federal policies to make broadband as accessible as telephones; 3) Press firmly ahead with the 2009 digital television transition, while continuing to clear a path for the coming explosion in wireless broadband services and technologies.
…
Broadband is a vital infrastructure, and without nurturing it, encouraging it and building it, America risks becoming an Internet Age also-ran.”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/1...

Analysis of FCC's latest broadband penetration numbers:
"On the surface ­ or at least in the pretty picture sure to be painted by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin ­ the numbers sound good.... But look past these rose-colored statistics. . .: The FCC still uses an absurd standard of “broadband” ....Speeds are much slower than what’s available in the rest of the world... The FCC still uses a discredited measure of broadband availability....There’s no competition. ...The numbers are inflated by cell phones."
http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/2007/02/01/us-broadband-market-still...

Former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth
"Our broadband policy should be the same whether we are ranked 1st, 15th, or 115th: Willing investors should be able to offer services to willing customers all under full protection of predictable laws with prices set by supply and demand. That, in a nutshell, is current American broadband policy, and it does not need to be changed."
http://furchtgott-roth.com/news.php?id=115

TRASH THE NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
[SOURCE: InterGovWorld.com, AUTHOR: Johna Till Johnson, Network World]
[Commentary] Nationally mandated broadband is an ineffective, topdown approach. Consider the abysmal track record of the current federal "national connectivity" initiative, the universal service fund, which represents centralized economic planning at its worst. There are much better solutions to the problem of extending broadband to the masses -- such as municipal networks. More than 300 communities around the country have, or are planning, wireless Internet access, with roughly 100 live to date. These services include free and low-cost access as well as paid connectivity for those seeking alternatives to the traditional telco or cable services. All this without a lick of federal involvement.
http://www.intergovworld.com/article/99a98c8b0a01040801c7c7c30d83a2cb/pg...

IT'S TIME FOR THE FEDS TO SUBSIDIZE BROADBAND
[SOURCE: ComputerWorld, AUTHOR: Preston Gralla]
[Commentary] The U.S. is falling so far behind the rest of the world in broadband that it's time for the government to take some action -- and Senator Hillary Clinton's proposed Rural Broadband Innovation Fund is a good first step. Now, I know there are a lot of wingnuts out there who believe that Senator Clinton is the spawn of the devil, but whatever you think of Clinton, her idea is on-target. Sen Clinton's bill would set up the Office of Rural Broadband Initiatives at the Department of Agriculture. The office would administer grants and loan programs to encourage investment in broadband infrastructure in underserved rural areas. It would also create a Rural Broadband Innovation Fund which would invest in services hat can deliver broadband service to rural areas including satellite, fiber, WiFi, and broadband over power lines (BPL).
http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/3683

''We have companies that lose money because they don't have broadband,'' said Maureen Connolly, a director at the Economic Development Council of Northern Vermont. ''We're not a third world country. We shouldn't have to beg for service.''
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F30710FD3D540C7B...

Commissioner McDowell
The Universal Service Fund is too bloated to help expand broadband deployment, FCC Comr. McDowell told an NTCA conference in Orlando. “The Fund simply cannot afford to subsidize broadband connectivity under its current structure,” McDowell said: “The bitter truth is that we can’t keep asking more and more folks to prop up a failing system. Fundamental reform is necessary.” The FCC last summer voted to expand the pool of USF contributors, but “the contribution factor that was supposed to have declined as a result of the FCC’s action is back on the rise again,” he said: “Like a fever that initially responds to treatment only to rage again the next day, the factor initially declined from about 11 percent to 9 percent once we broadened the base. But for the first quarter of 2007 it has risen again to 9.7 percent -- and early indications are that the second quarter figure could spike to over 11 percent. If bold action is not taken soon, this fever will threaten the patient’s life.” The contribution factor is the percentage of eligible revenue that telecom companies must contribute to the USF, and its rise usually reflects a rise in USF disbursements. Wireless spectrum is one hope for broadband deployment in rural areas served by NTCA members, said McDowell: “I hope that you’ll be active participants in the 700 MHz auction. The Commission is doing its part to help you move away from reliance on the Universal Service Fund by opening new windows of opportunity for the construction of new delivery platforms with new technologies and robust competition.”