Joan Engebretson

The Federal Communications Commission wants rate-of-return (ROR) telecommunications companies to transition to model-based support as the current voice-focused high-cost Universal Service Fund (USF) is phased out and converted to a broadband-focused Connect America Fund program.

Small rural ROR companies now receive USF support based on how their actual costs compare to nationwide averages, but critics argue that today’s system does not provide an incentive for telecommunications companies to deploy network infrastructure in the most efficient manner. The CAF program for larger price cap carriers is already slated to use a cost model to calculate support levels.

C Spire plans to offer home automation, security and monitoring to customers who purchase the gigabit service that the company is in the process of deploying in parts of Mississippi.

The offering, called C Spire Home, will use Lynx equipment from Honeywell and will be installed by licensed security technicians that C Spire will be hiring, a C Spire spokesman said. Monitoring will be handled by a third-party central station, the spokesman said.

Customers purchasing C Spire Home will have the ability to check in on and control their home system remotely using a smartphone. That capability has had a major impact in the home control and security market, making such systems more attractive to end users and significantly increasing demand.

And that trend has caught the attention of telecommunications and cable companies, many of whom have launched home control and security offerings in recent years.

It appears that the rural-rural broadband gap applies to schools as well as the broader Internet marketplace. That seems the best explanation for two substantially different measurements of average school bandwidth in surveys conducted by NTCA -- The Rural Broadband Association and EducationSuperHighway, an advocacy organization focused on bringing better broadband to the nation’s schools.

The NTCA released the results from a survey of its rural telecom service provider members which found that schools served by those companies, on average, purchase broadband connections delivering 65 Mbps downstream and 13 Mbps upstream. But EducationSuperHighway, which surveyed schools nationwide, found a median bandwidth of 33 Mbps.

These results might seem surprising, considering that broadband is generally available more broadly and at higher speeds in metro areas than in rural areas because it is less costly to deploy broadband in metro areas. That phenomenon is known as the rural-urban gap. But FCC researchers also have noted a rural-rural gap: Rural areas served by small independent telcos generally have better broadband availability and higher speeds than rural areas where the incumbent local carrier is one of the nation’s larger carriers such as AT&T or Verizon.

Level3 Communications wants the Federal Communications Commission to impose interconnection requirements on Internet service providers -- a move the company said is necessary to “fully protect the free and open Internet.”

The company recommends three specific ISP interconnection requirements. Mooney said Level3 already has similar arrangements with several ISPs and “the solution is good for everyone.”

Level3’s proposed ISP interconnection requirements include:

1. If a content provider or a network operator providing connectivity for the content provider delivers content into the ISP’s local market closest to the location of the ISP’s customer requesting the content, the ISP should be required to deliver the traffic to its customer without charging an interconnection fee -- provided that the content provider delivers a certain amount of traffic in the aggregate to the ISP.
2. The ISP would be able to select the interconnection location but selections would have to be “reasonable.” For example, each location would have to serve a minimum number of the ISP’s customers and the location would have to be served by several different metro transport service providers to ensure that the ISP has competitive choices.
3. If interconnection capacity becomes congested at any interconnection location, it would have to be promptly augmented.

The latest network operator with a gigabit network announcement is Paxio, which has launched gigabit residential service in Emeryville (CA), based on fiber-to-the-home technology.

Paxio’s business model is to partner with municipalities, property owners and the like -- sometimes overbuilding incumbent carrier networks. According to the Paxio website, the company is part of a public/private partnership known as EmeryConnect, which is “committed to delivering and maintaining a state-of-the-art fiber optic network for businesses and residential users in Emeryville.”

Several other network operators -- including Cogent, Hurrican Network, Level3 and Unwired -- also are part of EmeryConnect. Paxio did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Telecompetitor asking for more information.

But according to the company’s website, the company’s Emeryville fiber network is open access, meaning that other network operators also can use it. The company also sells dark fiber and other services -- including 10 Gbps connectivity for businesses based on fiber-to-the-premises.

The number of fixed and mobile US broadband connections with downstream speeds of at least 10 Mbps increased 118% between June 2012 and June 2013 to reach 103 million, according to Federal Communications Commission data.

The data is contained in the FCC’s latest “Internet Access Services” report, which is based on information collected from broadband providers.

Mobile broadband saw a particularly steep increase in the number of users connecting at higher data rates. More than 52 million mobile Internet users connected at speeds above 6 Mbps downstream and 1.5 Mbps upstream as of June 2013, up from 18.7 million in June 2012 -- an increase of 279%.

Rural communications service provider Plateau Telecommunications said that it has reached an agreement to sell its wireless operations in eastern New Mexico and West Texas to AT&T, making Plateau the latest in a long line of small carriers that have moved away from the wireless market.

The operations that are being sold are comprised of partnerships between Plateau, Yucca Telecom, Five Area Telephone Cooperative, South Plains Telephone Cooperative, Mid-Plains Rural Telephone Cooperative and West Texas Rural Telephone.

The US Government Accountability Office has asked the Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Rural Utilities Service, to provide more detailed information about the impact of the broadband stimulus program in annual reports.

“RUS has not shown how the approximately $3 billion in funds awarded [for broadband infrastructure] BIP projects [has] affected broadband availability,” wrote the GAO in a 25-plus page report sent to members of Congress.

The authors also note that “without this information future efforts to expand broadband may lack important information on the types of projects that were most effective at meeting subscribership goals, thereby limiting the ability to apply federal resources to programs with the best likelihood of success.”

According to the report authors, the USDA has said it will institute procedures to comply with the GAO’s reporting recommendations.

The New York Post, citing unnamed sources, has reported that Verizon is talking with Dish Network about the possibility of buying Dish’s AWS spectrum.

But while such a deal would make sense for Verizon, the potential benefits for Dish are not so clear. AWS spectrum includes several different blocks in a relatively high frequency band in the 1700-2200 MHz range. High-frequency spectrum has less range but greater capacity than lower-frequency spectrum making it well suited to serving high-traffic urban areas.

What Dish would gain by selling its spectrum to Verizon is less clear. Of course the company would gain cash. But it would shut itself out of the possibility of building its own wireless network -- and with TV Everywhere expected to skyrocket, video providers without their own wireless networks could be at a disadvantage.

AT&T wants to discontinue offering DSL service to some customers in its TDM-to-IP transition trials, said FCC officials at the commission’s monthly meeting, where an update on plans for the trials was provided.

The company envisions that its cellular-based Wireless Home Phone would replace DSL for many customers, the officials said, noting however that the FCC has concerns about whether the offering would be a suitable replacement. FCC officials also noted that the commission plans to select a “third party” to develop a research methodology for the TDM-to-IP transition trials and that AT&T has expressed its willingness to work with the third party, the officials said.

AT&T has told the FCC that it expects to seek approvals in the second half of 2015 to discontinue certain traditional TDM services, officials said.

FCC officials noted that trial-related development efforts underway at AT&T include:

• How to deliver a street address to 911 using the wireless-based service
• Making replacement offerings compatible with alarm systems, medical alerts, fax machines and devices used to validate credit cards
• Making replacement products TTY accessible
• How to serve approximately 4% of the customers in Carbon Hill who do not have access to AT&T U-verse or to AT&T wireless service