April 2011

Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn spoke at the Education Technology Policy Summit, focusing her remarks on broadband and the overhauling of the universal Service Fund.

She noted the FCC's work to update the E-rate program which provides discounts on telecommunications services for schools and libraries. "No matter how successful policies to promote broadband adoption at home may be," she said, "we must continue to help schools and libraries be successful digital anchor institutions. The Internet is too powerful a tool not to be promoted and improved in our nation’s classrooms and libraries. All of you have seen the wonders of this technology become a larger part of each child’s daily curriculum. Teachers have integrated their lectures with content from the Internet. Students are using the Internet to supplement their education in the classroom. Students and teachers don't rely solely on their textbooks anymore. Through the Internet, children who would never have the opportunity to travel to another city, much less another country, can experience the sights and sounds and learn about distant places.

In addition, digital connections have the potential to save local schools time and money. Through distance learning, schools can offer classes where they don't have enough students to justify hiring a teacher. Accordingly, school districts can aggregate their resources to meet their collective needs. Teachers and parents can more easily communicate with one another through email and websites. The work you do every day supports these functions, and I am certain so much more. I applaud your efforts and ask that you continue to help us at the FCC find new and more efficient ways to increase educational success throughout the country."

[Commentary] A handful of telco and cable companies and their allies are advancing what some consider the sugarcoated destruction of free-market dynamics and the democratic process by attacking North Carolina’s community broadband networks.

The State Assembly passed a bill (H-129) that severely restricts communities’ ability to choose their own best broadband solutions, even if those solutions include public private partnerships. The battle continues as the State Senate now reviews the bill. Pro-community network forces have stepped up their opposition, driven by new data showing North Carolina is dead last at meeting the FCC’s broadband standard of 4 Mbps. Another survey reveals that seven of the 10 worst cities for low broadband speed relative to price are in North Carolina. A national trend is brewing as similar battles pitting consumers and local businesses against incumbents have started in other states that have poor broadband coverage, threatening the national broadband strategy’s success. The threat is considered so real that FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn took the unusual step of publicly speaking out against H-129 last week.

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission's recent Second Report and Order on data roaming obligations of facilities-based operators offers two fascinating insights, only one of which will receive much attention.

Scholars and practitioners alike will concentrate on the FCC’s use of Title III spectrum management as the basis for mandating data roaming negotiations, backed up by formal complaint resolution. Analysts will marvel at how the Commission has managed to impose an interconnection regime without convincingly addressing how information service providers lawfully bear such duties. Additionally the Commission does not fully explain how the duty to negotiate on commercially reasonable terms and conditions does not constitute common carriage and a “duty to deal.” This document is very, very important, because the FCC clearly identifies instances where the nature and type of wireless competition is inadequate to guarantee data roaming agreements between the major national carriers, such as AT&T and Verizon, and just about any other carrier. Only AT&T and Verizon opposed a data roaming obligation, because, as noted by the Commission, these carriers have refused to deal and market consolidation “has reduced the number of potential roaming partners for some of the smaller, regional and rural providers” while also reducing the need for AT&T and Verizon to secure reciprocal roaming agreements. Such candor coming from an agency that never saw a wireless merger it could not approve and has never disputed industry claims regarding how tirelessly they have to compete.

The Federal Communications Commission ruled last week supporting AT&T in a case against MagicJack, which sells a $39.95 USB dongle that provides a full year of local and long-distance phone service without any additional charges (You can buy an additional year’s of service for $19.95. You plug a phone into the jack, and calls are carried over your broadband Internet connection. The basic service allows you receive calls at a regular phone number supplied by the company; you can also make unlimited domestic calls to wired and mobile numbers.)

The company, which was acquired last year by the Israeli voice over IP equipment provider Vocaltec, makes at least some of its cash from a related CLEC called YMax. Among other things, YMax generated revenue by collecting call termination fees from other carriers. AT&T asserted in a complaint to the FCC that the company was not entitled to those fees. And the Federal Communications Commission agreed, finding that AT&T did not have to pay YMax termination fees either for calls made by AT&T customers to MagicJack numbers, or for calls made from MagicJack users to toll-free numbers hosted by AT&T. While the ruling applied specifically to AT&T, you would think other carriers would follow the ruling and stop paying those same fees to YMax, which as the FCC ruling notes generates basically all of its traffic from MagicJack users.