January 2010

A 'National Broadband Plan' -- One more solution in search of a problem

[Commentary] As part of last year's stimulus package, Congress asked the FCC for a plan to ensure that everybody in the country has access to broadband. That's a worthy goal, but the idea of a government plan is based on a false presumption that the spread of broadband is stalled.

The reality is that broadband adoption continues apace, as does the quality and speed of Internet connections. Between 2000 and 2008, residential broadband subscribers grew to 80 million from five million, according to a study by Bret Swanson of Entropy Economics. Broadband penetration among active Internet users at home is 94%, and nearly 99% of U.S. workers connect to the Internet with broadband. A typical cable modem today is 10 times faster than a decade ago. Wireless bandwidth growth per capita has been no less impressive, showing a 500-fold increase since 2000. Meanwhile, U.S. information and communications technology investment in 2008 alone totalled $455 billion, or 22% of all U.S. capital investment. Nominal capital investment in telecom between 2000 and 2008 was more than $3.5 trillion. Those who favor more government control of the Internet ignore this private progress and point to international rankings. Doesn't the Obama Administration have enough to do than mess with a part of the U.S. economy that is working well?

Broadband users more likely find jobs, study says

According to a new study from the Phoenix Center, job seekers who use the Internet are more likely to keep actively looking for jobs and less likely to drop out of the labor pool than those without Internet access. The correlation between employment and Internet access is even stronger among broadband users. At a time when lawmakers are trying to ease unemployment, which now hovers over 10 percent, and increase Internet access, the study shows an explicit link between the two.

Will FCC's National Broadband Plan address reliability?

The National Broadband Plan that the Federal Communications Commission is readying for Congress could include programs to ensure greater reliability and visibility into IP networks on which the nation's public safety agencies increasingly depend, the chief of the FCC's Communications Systems Analysis Division said Tuesday.

One of the jobs of the division, which is part of the commission's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, is to assess the condition of communications infrastructure to help ensure that they are available during emergencies, Jeffrey Goldthorp said during a conference on cybersecurity policy hosted in Washington by the Stevens Institute of Technology. Such information is available for traditional carriers, but not for IP-based networks, Goldthorp said. There also is a lack of visibility into conditions of the Internet's core, he said.

FCC Approves Airport Body Scanning Device

As part of its ongoing efforts to promote innovative technology that furthers homeland security objectives, the Federal Communications Commission affirmed a rule waiver permitting the certification and subsequent marketing and operation of L 3 Communications SafeView Inc. (L 3 SafeView) ProVision 100 security portal full-body imaging devices. This system is used to detect weapons or contraband carried on an individual's person, including non metallic objects or explosives, which might otherwise require intrusive manual searches or be missed entirely by existing metal detectors.

"National security is one of the Commission's top priorities and the agency has an important role in promoting the development of innovative technologies to ensure the safety of the public," said Chairman Julius Genachowski. "With this action, we are helping to ensure that security personnel have access to the most cutting-edge equipment for protecting the public, while still preventing interference to other vital interests."

FCC Forum on Wireless Service

On Monday, January 25, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will hold an open forum with consumers from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Chula Vista Library's Civic Center Branch, in Chula Vista, CA, to discuss their experiences with wireless service providers. The forum is designed to provide consumers with an opportunity to speak directly with federal officials about their thoughts on the state of the wireless market.

Crafting A Comprehensive, Pragmatic Solution For Net Neutrality

[Commentary] Daily offers what he sees to be the key components to crafting a comprehensive, pragmatic solution for network neutrality:

1) Make providers be transparent to their customers.

2) Set strong rules against slowing down traffic anti-competitively.

3) Don't dissuade innovation in the network to speed up traffic.

4) Keep a close eye on how the prioritized market evolves.

5) Fund testbeds to prove if open networks can work.

Game developers warn FCC of "balkanized" Internet

A team of online game developers and boosters told the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday about worries that the big ISPs could fragment the Internet with "pay-for-priority" arrangements, causing economic troubles for the gaming industry similar to those created by mobile access providers.

"Software platform developers like Microsoft and Facebook pose less of a threat to innovation than infrastructure owners," one developer told the agency, according to notes of the meeting. He added that "if the Internet were balkanized, and developers had to negotiate separately with each ISP, that would be a substantial drag on innovation because it would divert resources from development."

The game makers included Asheron's Call producer Dan Scherlis, Jon Radoff of GamerDNA, Christopher Dyl of online world-maker Tubine, Matthew Bellows of voice chat developer Vivox, and Darius Kazemi of the International Game Developers Association. Kent Quirk also attended, speaking for himself and not his employer, Linden Lab.

Will broadband stimulus round 2 lure bigger telcos?

Now that the rules have changed for the second round of broadband stimulus funding awards, will incumbent telco carriers get more involved?

None of the three former Bell carriers applied for the first round of funding. And of the biggest rural telcos - CenturyLink, Windstream and Frontier Communications, which might have the broadest reach into unserved areas - only Frontier applied for stimulus in the first round, and only in one state (West Virginia).

Carl Russo, chief executive officer of Calix — a broadband equipment vendor that counts at least one first-round stimulus winner among its rural telco customer base - predicted last summer that carriers that had sat out the first round would join in the second. Upsetting that prediction to some degree was the fact that there wasn't much opportunity to apply lessons from the first round to second-round rules changes. Not many first-round winners have been named yet (the batch announced last month represents only about 9% of first-round funds, though, in total, applicants asked for more than four times the amount available). And second-round applications are already due March 15.

FCC Votes To Close Terrestrial Exemption

Cable operators who do not share their owned terrestrially-delivered regional sports networks with their competitors will be presumed to be in violation of Federal Communications Commission rules against unfair acts or practices.

They get to rebut the presumption, but the FCC majority made clear Wednesday (Jan. 20) it was taking action against what it saw as a loophole for multichannel video providers to withhold must-have programming from competitors. As expected, the FCC voted to close, or at least narrow, the exemption of terrestrially-delivered networks from program access rules. The vote was 4-1, with FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker joining the Democratic majority and Republican Robert McDowell dissenting with the advice that he expected to see the decision challenged in court. Media Bureau staffer David Konczal said there were three reasons for the FCC's action. He said cable continues to have incentive and ability to engage in unfair practices; that there is evidence of withholding programming, including must-have cable-affiliated regional sports nets in San Diego, New York.; and Philadelphia; and that there is evidence that such withholding depresses satellite subscribership, and thus reduces competition.

The decision could mean the FCC may be looking for even greater concessions in Comcast's pending NBC Universal joint venture, according to influential Sanford Bernstein cable and satellite analyst Craig Moffett. The ruling could mean that once-exclusive operator-owned RSNs like the Comcast Sports Network in Philadelphia would have to be made available to satellite and telco competitors. In a research note Wednesday, Moffett wrote that the ruling could be a boon for DirecTV, which has half the penetration rate in Philadelphia (16%) than it has across the country, largely because it is unable to carry CSN. However, Moffett said that the overall subscriber impact on Comcast would be relatively small.

Satellite and telco operators seeking access to cable-owned sports programming were high-fiving over the FCC's vote to end the exemption of terrestrially delivered networks, particularly sports networks, from being made available to competitors. Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, said, "The FCC should be commended for acting today to help consumers gain access to programming that has been denied to them by a quirk in communications law. The so-called 'terrestrial loophole' allowed cable operators to withhold programming from competitors, to the detriment of consumers and of competition."

Following the vote, Cablevision issued a statement defending program policies under the new rules. "While we find the legal basis for the decision unfounded, we are pleased that the FCC recognized the value of Cablevision's local programming strategy and investments," the statement said. "Verizon and AT&T will not receive an FCC bailout that will allow them to capture News 12, MSG Varsity and other programming that we have developed for our customers."

FCC Launches Consumer Task Force

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the launch of a Consumer Task Force to advance the Commission's consumer agenda and promote collaboration across the agency.

Joel Gurin, Chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, will head the cross-agency task force.

"The goal of protecting and empowering consumers is among the Commission's most important responsibilities," said Chairman Genachowski. "As communications networks and technologies become increasingly complex and essential to Americans' everyday lives, the Commission must be a vigilant watchdog for the consumer. While we have one bureau with 'consumer' in its name, consumers are vital to the work of each of our bureaus and offices. Cross-agency collaboration is critical to this effort and that's why I am so pleased to launch the Consumer Task Force."

The Consumer Task Force will play a critical role in ensuring that Commission proceedings take account of consumer interests, that consumer protection and empowerment policies apply consistently and reasonably across technologies and bureaus at the FCC, that the public is able to engage fully in FCC processes, and that the agency enhances the public's understanding of Commission work through state-of-the-art consumer information programs, seizing the opportunities of information technology. The Task Force will include every Commission Bureau Chief, the Chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, the General Counsel, and the Managing Director.

Benton

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