January 2010

Free Press filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission outlining policies that are most critical to the success of the congressionally mandated national broadband plan to bring high-speed Internet to all Americans. In the comments, Free Press emphasizes the importance of both practical policy recommendations and benchmarks and aspirational goals in planning the country's Internet future.

• Encourage broadband adoption through policies to increase competition: The plan should focus on competition in order to spur the deployment of high-capacity networks and drive down consumer costs to expand access for all Americans.
• Enact Universal Service Fund reform: The "High Cost Fund" that currently supports basic telephone service must be reformed to support the construction of broadband networks to promote universal deployment. The fund should only provide ongoing subsidies for telephone service as truly needed, and the commission should aim to reduce the size of the fund dramatically over time.
• Treat broadband as essential infrastructure: The plan must account for the critical information needs of people and communities. Libraries, schools and other essential institutions must have access to low-cost robust broadband.
• Maximize the public utility of spectrum: Adopt "use it or lose it" spectrum rules to limit waste and open new portions of public spectrum to unleash innovation and improve the wireless broadband market.
• Undertake set top box reform: The FCC must move decisively to prevent cable companies from acting as gatekeepers in the set top box market.

Broadcasters filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission promising "full and constructive participation" in the agency's National Broadband Plan. While offering support for several aspects of submissions filed by the Department of Justice and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the broadcast groups described a low-power proposal proffered by CTIA-The Wireless Association and the Consumer Electronics Association, while constructive, was impractical.

The broadcasters' comments came as part of a joint filing submitted by the National Association of Broadcasters and the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV). NAB and MSTV expressed appreciation for CTIA and CEA's "constructive" efforts, but concluded that their proposal to transition over-the-air digital television to a low-power distributed transmission system (DTS) technology would result in coverage loss and interference. "Coverage gaps are the unavoidable consequence of trying to use a fill-in technology such as DTS as an across-the-board substitute" for the current deliver system of over-the-air DTV, the broadcast groups explained. Moreover, the CTIA/CEA proposal drastically underestimates the cost burden associated with such a transition, while overestimating the spectrum yield, NAB and MSTV said. The costs of implementing DTS "would be orders of magnitude higher than the estimates provided by CTIA/CEA," broadcasters concluded.

Local Television Broadcasters said before meaningfully considering a reallocation of broadcast spectrum, the Commission should take the following six steps to build a solid foundation upon which proper spectrum policy framework can be constructed. 1. Complete a spectrum inventory and identify available spectrum; 2. Investigate spectrum shortage claims, and the nexus between spectrum and consumer broadband demand; 3. Investigate alternatives to reallocating spectrum to the wireless industry; 4. Investigate increasing reliance on over-the-air television; 5. Investigate adverse consequences of coercive reallocation schemes; and 6. Complete the DTV Transition for rural America. "The highest-valued use for spectrum will not come from government assessments or government interventions." Only competition and regulatory flexibility will advance the adoption of wireless broadband and the offering of fairly-priced wireless services.

Rep Donna Edwards (D-MD) sent a letter to her colleagues on Wednesday urging them to sign a petition supporting the principles of network neutrality.

In a petition addressed to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Rep Edwards says "we cannot allow the Internet to become a commercial pay-for-play media system. An Internet without net neutrality will hamper economic growth and will serve as a barrier to the free flow of information." "The rulemaking process is an unprecedented opportunity to protect and promote consumer choice, competition, and innovation on the Internet," she wrote to her peers, adding that without the "open flow of information on the Internet much of the progress in the 20th and 21st centuries would never have taken place."

More than 48 million people (48,009,595) tuned in to watch President Barack Obama's first State of the Union address Wednesday night (Jan. 27), Nielsen reported. The speech was carried by 11 networks including ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, CNN, BET, CNBC, Fox News Channel and MSNBC.