March 2010

Ofcom adopts benign stance over BT

Ofcom on Tuesday held out the prospect of a benign regulatory regime for British Telecom and its super-fast broadband network.

Analysts say the main risk for BT is that a future Conservative government could ignore Ofcom's proposals and introduce a harsher regulatory regime for the UK's leading fixed-line phone company. BT is spending £1.5bn on a high-speed broadband network based on optical fibre that will reach 40 per cent of UK homes by mid-2012. As well as persuading consumers to buy its superfast broadband products, BT is hoping to strike wholesale deals with rivals led by British Sky Broadcasting and Carphone Warehouse's Talk Talk telecoms subsidiary. Under such deals, Sky and Talk Talk would use BT's wholesale fibre products in order to provide high-speed broadband services to their customers. In a key concession to BT, Ofcom proposed that the company should have the freedom to set the price of its wholesale products. Ofcom added that the products would be modified after concerns raised by Sky and Talk Talk, but BT's rivals have not secured all the changes they were looking for following trials.

A Plan of Firsts

The National broadband Plan is a plan of firsts. The first time the federal government did an in-depth survey of non-adopters of broadband, to understand what influences that choice, a prerequisite to increasing adoption rates. The first time the federal government did a cost model to determine the net present value private investment gap for communities not served by broadband, a pre-requisite for moving universal service to support broadband. The first time the FCC undertook a process this open and transparent, holding dozens of public workshops to solicit the input of experts and citizens alike, welcoming extensive feedback online. It's one thing to have a bold plan, a bold vision, and bold goals. It's more impressive, though, to make that plan, that vision, and those goals a reality.

Senate oversight hearing on FCC's broadband plan postponed

The Senate Commerce Committee postponed its oversight hearing of the Federal Communications Commission's national broadband plan. The hearing was a victim of Republican opposition to the recently-passed health care reform law.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski was scheduled to appear as the sole witness in the hearing. The hearing, scheduled for 2:30 pm, was a victim of Republican opposition to the recently-passed health care reform law. There is a little-known rule in the Senate stating that hearings can't happen after 2:00 p.m. each day without unanimous consent. However, every day, at the start of business, the Senate generally agrees, by unanimous consent, to waive this rule and continue with the necessary business of holding hearings. Republicans, however, are now refusing to give unanimous consent and are blocking the hearings. Congressional staffers say that they anticipate Republicans will not only continue blocking hearings for the rest of the week, but also delay or block all sorts of minor, routine measures.

Boucher Touts His Universal Service Reform Plan

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) said that his proposed legislation to overhaul the Universal Service Fund would go further than what the Federal Communications Commission could do under its current authority.

The FCC devoted a central piece of the national broadband plan last week to recommendations for the future of the fund, which subsidizes telephone services to low-income and rural homes. The plan proposes to pivot the fund toward subsidizing broadband access, as does a measure Rep Boucher and Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE) released in draft form in November. Chairman Boucher said his draft measure would go further than the FCC plan. In particular, he pointed to the bill's effort to prevent "traffic pumping schemes," a practice in which phone companies inflate their call volume to boost the inter-carrier compensation fees they collect. "I don't think the commission under its current authorities could do [all that the legislation] could do today," he said.

Boucher To Draft Spectrum Auction Bill

The National Broadband Plan could get a boost from possible House legislation that would grant the agency authority to implement one of its core recommendations: creating a nationwide wireless broadband network for public safety officials.

The Federal Communications Commission has suggested that the network be built using 10 megahertz of spectrum already under the control of emergency responders. The proposal follows a failed effort by the commission to auction adjacent spectrum, known as the D-block, to a commercial bidder willing to enter into a public-private partnership with first responders.

During an appearance Tuesday at a telecommunications policy forum sponsored by National Journal, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) said he's exploring legislation addressing the issue. "The commission had recommended an auction of the D-block, essentially without conditions. I agree with that recommendation," he said.

Copps On Reclaiming Broadcast Spectrum: Handle With Care

In testimony prepared for a House oversight hearing, Federal Communications Commission member Michael Copps advises Congress that the FCC should exercise "great caution" in reclaiming spectrum from broadcasters because of the potential harm to a diversity of voices, one of his signature concerns.

"I will be urging great caution," he plans to tell the House Communications Subcommittee, "because of the possibly detrimental effects of reallocating spectrum from those stations currently using it to serve diverse audiences. Every local voice that disappears runs against the grain of localism, diversity and competition." The plan includes a proposal to voluntarily collect at least 120 MHz of spectrum from broadcasters, auction that spectrum for wireless broadband uses, and compensate broadcasters from some of the proceeds. The last part of that equation gives Commissioner Copps pause as well. "Each of us would have, I am sure, some variations on the Plan that has been presented. In matters involving the reclamation of spectrum, for example, I am always conscious of the fact that the airwaves belong to the American people and that licensees may use that spectrum, but they do not own it," he said. "Talk about directly compensating licensees for spectrum runs into that reality."

Clyburn: FCC Needs To Insure Speed, Price Competition

In testimony prepared for a House oversight hearing, Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn will say that the national broadband plan should make sure there are least two broadband offerings in every market to insure price and speed competition.

"Competition is the lifeblood of investment, innovation, and affordable prices," she plans to tell the House Communications Subcommittee, adding that absent that competition, cable operators and others have no incentive to improve their service or facilities.

How we'll get a gigabit to US hospitals, libraries, colleges

One key recommendation in the National Broadband Plan was that the government support a scheme to wire hundreds of thousands of "anchor institutions" with 1Gbps fiber.

The move would mean that schools, libraries, colleges, and community centers in every town in the country could eventually have a fat pipe and a future-proof fiber connection. Not only that: both the FCC and the plan's backers envision the system being used to push faster broadband out into the surrounding community. The only question is how to pay for it all. Many of the winning grant applications for broadband stimulus money are middle-mile applications, and the government has required grant winners to be open to all last-mile providers. But this is quite limited in impact; the new proposal is far more ambitious, extending this to more than 200,000 local institutions, which could also pool resources to get bulk deals on both hardware and bandwidth. All of this would be made possible by the proposed Unified Community Anchor Network (UCAN), which would do the wiring. UCAN would not reinvent the wheel; where existing networks like Internet2 exist, they would be used or better interconnected. In addition, 30 states have state-level education networks. These could then be expanded to local anchor institutions. In places where such networks are sparse or absent, UCAN envisions building out new network capacity to link up the schools, hospitals, and community centers.

Paying for UCAN is an unsolved problem, however. The National Broadband Plan avoids getting into funding details, instead suggesting that the idea is terrific and should be funded. How? Not even the idea's backers know. All the stakeholders are gathering in April to hash out their proposed solution, which could involve leftover broadband stimulus money, additional funding requests to Congress, and consolidating many federal programs into UCAN support. Paying for the scheme remains an obvious stumbling block, but conceptual support is now in place.

Police, fire chiefs say national broadband plan will not improve communications

Police and fire chiefs from around the country are calling on Congress to make sure public safety agencies have access to enough wireless airwaves to form a nationwide communication network for first responders.

Public safety executives say the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) National Broadband Plan undermines their ability to build a network that would allow federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to talk to each other during national disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina or the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The National Broadband Plan, which the FCC delivered to Congress last week, makes several recommendations intended to allow paramedics, police officers, port authority patrols and other emergency workers to create a national network to replace the current patchwork of networks that use different technologies, making it difficult for different jurisdictions to communicate. The biggest point of contention is over the FCC's recommendation to auction off a chunk of spectrum previously set aside for public safety. During emergencies, public safety officials would have priority access on commercial networks. But top police commissioners and fire chiefs say that system will not be reliable enough. Instead, they want the FCC to give a larger piece of spectrum to the first responders, who would then lease excess capacity to commercial providers when it is not needed.

National Broadband Plan Recommends Lower, Uniform Pole Attachment Rates

The National Broadband Plan emphasizes that encouraging and facilitating access to infrastructure, such as utility poles, is critical to the continued deployment and enhancement of broadband facilities in America. The Plan states that, "[c]ollectively, the expense of obtaining permits and leasing pole attachments and rights-of-way can amount to 20% of the cost of fiber optic deployment." Plan at 109. The Plan notes that "[t]hese costs can be reduced directly by cutting fees" and "can also be lowered indirectly by expediting processes and decreasing the risks and complexities that companies face as they deploy broadband network infrastructure."

Benton

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