SHLB Coalition Has Issues With FCC's BDS Approach

The Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition has launched a campaign trying to get the Federal Communications Commission to reverse course on its new approach to business data services (BDS), saying with that approach "our kids will suffer from buffer brains rather than developing into the next-generation of entrepreneurs and leaders."

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler was initially going to impose rate regulations on both the ethernet BDS service used by new competitive entrants like cable ISPs and the traditional TDM (time-division multiplexing)-based service provided by the incumbent telecommunication companies, but he subsequently switched to a case-by-case, market-by-market, complaint-driven approach to ethernet service price regulations. SHLB Coalition wants the FCC to regulate both TDM and ethernet below 50 Mbps in an "equivalent manner," saying not to do so excludes schools and libraries from the BDS revamp. The campaign is called #NoBufferBrains, and it wants the FCC to make "emergency improvements" to the proposal. "Emergency" because Chairman Wheeler has scheduled a vote on the latest BDS proposal for the Nov 17 public meeting after originally circulating it for a vote outside a public meeting.