August 2014

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation urged the Federal Communications Commission to not encourage municipal broadband overbuilds. This high fixed-cost industry is driven by economics that cannot sustain increased competition through an injection of public money without imposing negative externalities on others. This fact, combined with the poor track record of attempted municipal networks as well as the availability of alternative opportunities to reduce the costs of deploying or upgrading networks means state laws restricting these networks are usually good policy and should not be preempted. Doug Brake, telecom policy analyst at ITIF, said, "when analyzing state restrictions on municipal networks you have to ask whether these networks benefit or harm the surrounding area. Where networks duplicate existing private infrastructure, it is likely they end up raising costs on others, justifying state restrictions."

CenturyLink has accused Comcast of trying to prevent competition in cities and towns by making it difficult for the company to obtain reasonable franchise agreements from local authorities.

CenturyLink made the claim in a filing that asks the Federal Communications Commission to block Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable or impose conditions that prevent Comcast from using its market power to harm competitors. Comcast has a different view on the matter, saying that CenturyLink shouldn’t be able to enter Comcast cities unless CenturyLink promises to build out its network to all residents. Without such conditions, poor people might not be offered service, Comcast argues.

A Q&A with John Jureller, the chief financial officer for Frontier Communications, a broadband and satellite video provider with nearly 14,000 employees and operations in 27 states. He talks about staying relevant in a changing industry, balancing fiduciary and strategic interests, and communicating with regulators. CFOs in the broadband industry need to ensure that they are investing in tomorrow’s technology while responding to customer needs today.

[Commentary] With a couple of important exceptions, the major publisher-broadcasters have spun off legacy newspapers holdings into separate companies or simply sold them. The moves have been driven by investors and trustees tired of seeing earnings and margins dragged down by publishing, and management's inability to achieve any kind of cross-media synergy. One of the bigger blows came in 1975 when the Federal Communications Commission banned new same-market newspaper-broadcast combinations to prevent the publishers from becoming too powerful. Things have changed a little since then, but the prohibition remains.