March 2010

Single Payer Broadband? The Broadband Plan and The Movement for a People's Media

[Commentary] As we arrive at the end of the long health care reform battle with something less than nirvana, media activists have been waiting with bated breath for the release of the long-awaited National Broadband Plan from the Federal Communications Commission. Well over a year in the making, the plan sets a course for the future of the online communications system -- a system that materially affects every American's ability to access information and express themselves. It's not exactly the public option.

Despite market failure, which is analogous to the failure of Blue Cross and Aetna to deliver the highest life expectancies and lowest rates of infant mortality, the plan provides few other options. That's not because there aren't any. Cities and states all over the country have been looking at the possibility of public networks. The FCC admits this may be a last resort for difficult-to-cover areas the market has no profitable solution for. Why a last resort? Why have 18 states passed laws banning municipalities from offering any wholesale or retail broadband services? Is it because they might do it better? More competition should never be considered a last resort.

Does the FCC Want Our Internet Slow?

[Commentary] It looks as though the Obama pledge for evidence-based policy will take a blow on Tuesday, when FCC commissioners will testify in House and Senate hearings about the national broadband plan.

The Bush administration policy was not to have a broadband plan at all, and so at the dawn of Obama things looked bright for Internet users across the United States. The new Obama FCC started by requesting extensive academic research on broadband from Harvard, Columbia, and elsewhere. The researchers and the FCC both linked broadband to economic opportunity, health care, education, government performance, civic engagement, clean energy and public safety. Whether these links work in the way they are described poses important issues that we leave for another time. However, there's no question that broadband is positioned in public discourse as the most critical of critical infrastructures. So then why is the US such a laggard?

The researchers suggested that the FCC needed to make some hard decisions to implement the next generation of the Internet in the US, and so the FCC threw the research away.

European Analysts Laud U.S. Broadband Plan, But Question Goals

European reaction to the new U.S. broadband plan has been mixed, ranging from high praise to dismissal as a flawed catch-up exercise.

The plan was hailed as bold by Tim Johnson, chief analyst at Point Topic, a London-based provider of online analysis and data about broadband markets. He suggested it strengthened the case for a similar government-led approach to broadband stimulation in Europe and elsewhere. "Those of us on the 'invest now' side look at the case being made in the U.S. with great interest," Johnson said. "The boldness of the U.S. plan will encourage all those who believe that we should bring forward investment in superband and other new communications technologies, subject to truly competitive tendering." Johnson also praised the plan for not being overly ambitious, which he said will make it more likely to succeed. But Johnson also highlighted a concern shared by analysts that the FCC plan would fail once again to deliver a competitive broadband market in the United States.

One Economy's Mourad asks FCC about adoption programs

One Economy's Moustafa Mourad asks the Federal Communications Commission how it will approach its goal of bridging the digital divide.

XO Communications questions the FCC on its broadband plan

Heather Burnett Gold, XO Communications' senior vice president for external affairs, asks the Federal Communications Commission about how the national broadband plan will aid small businesses.

12 New RUS broadband Stimulus Grants Announced

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the selection of broadband infrastructure projects to give rural residents in 8 states access to improved economic and educational opportunities. In all, $150 million will be invested in 12 projects through funding made available by Congress in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. An additional $68.2 million in private investment will be provided in matching funds, bringing the total funds invested to $218.2 million. To date, $1.05 billion has been provided to construct 67 broadband projects in 30 states and one territory.

Alaska
Copper Valley Wireless, Inc.: The Cordova, Alaska, Microwave Project; $1,747,796 loan and $1,747,795 grant. The funding will extend middle-mile connectivity from Naked Island to Cordova.

Arizona
Tohono O'odham Utility Authority: The Fiber Route - Middle Mile Project; $3,565,900 loan and $3,565,900 grant. The funding will enable high-speed DSL services throughout the reservation with Fiber-to-the-Premises and fixed wireless broadband in certain areas.

Illinois
Norlight Telecommunications, Inc.: The Rural High-Speed Ethernet Network - Southern Illinois Project; $8,538,224 loan, $14,230,375 grant and $5,692,151 of private investment. The funding will provide more than 1,600 miles of middle-mile fiber-optic network throughout 24 southern counties to deliver high-speed Ethernet connectivity.

Kansas

South Central Telephone Association, Inc.: The Lake City & Sun City Rural Fiber-to-the-House (FTTH) Project; $871,200 grant, and $3,550,800 of private investment. The funding will provide FTTH broadband service to all unserved establishments in the telephone exchanges of Lake and Sun City.
Madison Telephone, LLC: The Madison-Lamont Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) Project; $3,519,750 loan, $3,519,750 grant and $763,634 of private investment. The funding will provide FTTP last-mile broadband service to exchange areas, including the Kansas telephone exchanges of Madison and Lamont.
J.B.N. Telephone Company, Inc.: The West Cluster Plus Barnes Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) Project; $5,489,250 loan, $5,489,250 grant, and $3,697,619 of private investment. The funding will provide FTTP broadband service throughout seven western exchanges (West Cluster) and the Barnes exchange (Barnes).

Minnesota

Northeast Service Cooperative: The Northeast Minnesota Middle Mile Project; $21,749,110 loan and $21,749,110 grant. The funding will provide middle-mile, dark fiber, wavelength services to private-sector providers in rural areas of northeast Minnesota.
Minnesota Valley Television Improvement Corporation: The Minnesota Wireless Expansion Project; $562,776 loan and $562,776 grant, and $281,388 of private investment. The funding will provide a two-way broadband internet network to unserved and underserved areas of west central and south central Minnesota, providing 34 additional wireless (WiMAX) access points.

North Dakota
Dakota Central Telecom 1 (DCT1): The Dakota Central Telecom l Project; $2,252,250 grant, and $2,499,597 of private investment. The funding will provide Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband services to households, businesses and key community organizations in portions of the Streeter and Gackle exchanges that are currently unserved.

Oklahoma

Pioneer Long Distance, Inc.: The Western Oklahoma Wireless (WOW) Project; $1,819,349 loan and $1,783,322 grant. The funding will provide wireless broadband service to unserved and underserved rural areas in western Oklahoma.
Panhandle Telephone Cooperative, Inc.: The Western Oklahoma Broadband Infrastructure Development Project; $3,366,188 loan, $10,098,562 grant, and $23,297,597 of private investment. The funding will provide a broadband infrastructure to rural areas within the western Oklahoma panhandle area.

Texas
Wes-Tex Telephone Cooperative, Inc.: The Western Texas Broadband Infrastructure Development Project; $16,891,875 loan, $16,891,875 grant and $28,417,425 of private investment. The funding will provide a broadband infrastructure to increase Internet availability and access speeds in rural areas of western Texas.

Survey: Broadband a key issue in congressional races

Nearly half of American voters say they'd be more likely to vote for their member of Congress if they supported investing in broadband improvements, according to the results of a Zogby International poll.

Zogby surveyed 4,143 likely voters earlier this month about a range of technology-oriented issues. According to the results, 91 percent of the respondents believe that broadband access is somewhat or very important to their lives. And 43 percent said a commitment to broadband investment in their regions would win their votes in upcoming congressional races. Still, 27 percent of those surveyed said it isn't a priority for their vote.

Coalition aims to close digital divide for HUD households

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) has joined with computer companies, telcos and a couple of broadband-centric nonprofits in a Digital Adoption Coalition (DAC) that is seeking broadband stimulus bucks.

The goal of the coalition, which is led by nonprofit broadband adoption organization One Economy, is to bring broadband to as many as 250,000 low-income households. If it gets the money--it put in a bid March 15, the deadline for the second round of stimulus fund broadband bids--the coalition will work with HUD to get broadband to public housing via low-cost access, equipment (computers) and training. NCTA has been prepped for the job, having announced its Adoption-Plus initiative. Participating cable operators are ready to deliver half-price service to low-income homes with middle school kids, but that program was contingent on government-funded training and education and the kind of tech-support that companies like Intel, Microsoft and Dell are providing as part of the DAC.

Court lifts ban on media ownership restrictions

A federal court has at least temporarily lifted government rules that blocked media companies from owning a newspaper and a broadcast TV station in the same market.

The decision Tuesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit lifts the Federal Communications Commission's "cross-ownership" ban. That restriction had remained in effect under a stay issued by the court in 2003 as it has tried to sort out legal challenges to attempts by two previous FCC chairmen, Republicans Michael Powell and Kevin Martin, to relax the rules. The decision comes as the current FCC, now under Democratic control, gears up for its next congressionally mandated review of its media ownership rules. Those rules, which the agency must review every four years, include the cross-ownership ban and limits on the number of television and radio stations that one company can own in a market.

According to Andrew Jay Schwartzman, head of the nonprofit law firm Media Access Project, the decision signals that the court has lost patience with the FCC. Media Access Project has led the public interest coalition in its fight against any relaxation of the rules, warning that too much media consolidation would lead to less diversity in media coverage. Schwartzman said that while he is disappointed by the court's action, he understands why it is frustrated with the FCC's slow pace. Free Press, another public interest group involved in the challenges, called on the FCC "to take decisive action to protect media diversity and to encourage competition in local news."

Robert McDowell, one of two Republicans on the five-member FCC, welcomed the court's move to lift "burdensome ownership rules that are many years out of date." He added that the decision is "particularly appropriate given the economic upheaval affecting the ongoing viability of many daily newspapers and broadcast stations."

Google Faces Fallout as China Reacts to Site Shift

As Google began redirecting tens of millions of Chinese users on Tuesday to its uncensored Web site in Hong Kong, the company's remaining mainland operations came under pressure from its Chinese partners and from the government itself.

For weeks, Google had been holding out hope that the Chinese government would allow it to keep its pledge to end censorship while retaining its share of China's fast-growing Internet search market. But the government has shown no sign of budging. Mainland Chinese users still could not see much of the unfiltered Hong Kong search results Tuesday because government firewalls either disabled searches for highly objectionable terms completely or blocked links to certain results. That had typically been the case before Google's action, only now millions more visitors were liable to encounter the disrupted access to an uncensored site. Beijing officials were clearly angered Tuesday by Google's decision to close its Internet search service in China and redirect users to the Hong Kong site, a move that focused global attention on the government's censorship policies, and there were signs of possible escalation in the dispute.

China's biggest cellular communications company, China Mobile, was expected to cancel a deal that had placed Google's search engine on its mobile Internet home page, used by millions of people daily. In interviews, business executives close to industry officials said the company was planning to scrap the deal under government pressure, despite the fact that China Mobile has yet to contract with a replacement. Similarly, China's second-largest mobile company, China Unicom, was said by analysts and others to have delayed or killed the imminent introduction of a cellphone based on Google's Android platform. One major Internet portal, Tom.com, already had ceased using Google to power its search engine.

Benton

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