February 2009

The chances of BT spending £1.5bn on a superfast broadband network have increased substantially after the telecoms regulator said its rules would not prevent the telecoms operator from securing an adequate return on its investment. Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, told the FT the planned regulatory regime for BT's network would not be an "obstacle". Since unveiling plans for its superfast fixed-line broadband network in July, BT has insisted they are conditional on its ability to make a sufficient return. "Regulation will not be a barrier to this kind of investment," said Richards, adding that Ofcom would publish its planned rules next month. "I am confident we will lay out a regulatory framework which will clearly enable companies to be free to make a return which justifies the investment they are making." His statement came as BT reported a 74 per cent fall in pre-tax profit for the third quarter because of severe problems at its unit serving the telecoms needs of multinationals.

In a spate of arrests announced Thursday, Beijing officials put the blame for a Monday fire that destroyed part of the government's spectacular new media complex squarely on the shoulders of the state-run television network. The police detained 12 people, including the chief of construction for the new headquarters of China Central Television, or CCTV, and eight employees of the firm the broadcaster hired to put on an illegal fireworks show that the authorities said ignited the blaze. The fire gutted a nearly completed 520-foot-high futuristic hotel that was part of CCTV's new $1.1 billion headquarters, sometimes described as an architectural symbol of China's rising power. One firefighter died, and seven people were injured.

On February 12, 2009, House and Senate conferees approved the economic recovery package. The House Commerce Committee released summaries on the health care, broadband, and energy provisions.

1) On broadband: The bill would create a new Broadband Technology Opportunities Program within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration ("NTIA") of the Department of Commerce. The new grant program will distribute $4.7 billion to fund the deployment of broadband infrastructure in unserved and underseved areas in the country, and to help facilitate broadband use and adoption. An additional $2.5 billion in loans and grants will be administered by the Rural Utilities Service. The Federal Communications Commission is required to develop a national broadband plan within one year.

2) On energy: The legislation will jumpstart smart grid demonstration projects in geographically diverse urban, suburban, tribal, and rural areas. Federal matching grants for smart grid technology will increase from 20% to 50%. Grantees will be required to utilize open protocols and standards when available and lessons learned during demonstration projects will be available to help others to deploy smart grid infrastructure. The bill provides $4.5 billion for this effort.

3) On Health Information Technology: This bill promotes the use of health information technology (health IT), such as electronic health records, by: requiring the government to take a leadership role to develop standards by 2010 that allow for the nationwide electronic exchange and use of health information to improve the quality and coordination of care; investing $19 billion in health information technology infrastructure and Medicare and Medicaid incentives to encourage doctors, hospitals, and other providers to use health IT to electronically exchange patients' health information; and strengthening federal privacy and security law to protect identifiable health information from misuse and abuse as the health care sector increases use of health IT.

House Republicans and conservative watchdog groups met at the National Press Club Thursday morning to air their grievances about the economic stimulus bill that they predicted would be wasteful and ineffective at jump-starting an economic recovery. The broadband stimulus program should be a separate measure entirely, said Citizens Against Government Waste President Thomas Schatz. Holding up an article in Thursday's Washington Post, Schatz singled out as an extreme example of waste the House language allocating $1.8 billion to the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service program. That money had been cut from the version of the bill that passed the Senate on Tuesday, however, and replaced with a broadband fund of up to $6.65 billion. Additionally, the Senate-passed version calls for up to $350 million for broadband mapping, and $100 million in loans and grants for broadband in rural areas. Referring to the $1.8 billion in RUS funding that had been in the House version of the stimulus, Schatz said it was equal to what the agency had received for broadband over the last six years.