Network management

In the latest in a legislative flurry of broadband-related items, a bipartisan bill has been introduced in both the House and Senate to promote rural broadband deployment and identify fallow broadband fields in key agricultural sectors.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's claim that repealing network neutrality rules will boost network investment didn't get much support from Verizon's latest spending forecast. Verizon's network spending won't change much in 2018, and the company also won't be using its newfound tax savings to upgrade its broadband networks. Verizon reported $17.2 billion of capital expenditures in calendar year 2017, with the net neutrality rules in place the entire year.

[Commentary] With an upcoming Federal Communications Commission vote on whether cellphone data speeds are fast enough for work, entertainment and other online activities, Americans face a choice: Is modest-speed internet appropriate for rural areas, or do rural Americans deserve access to the far faster service options available in urban areas?

The Federal Communications Commission invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on the information collection necessary for the Restoring Internet Freedom Report and Order's rule requiring internet service providers disclosure of certain network management processes, performance characteristics, and other attributes of broadband internet access service. The order eliminates the additional collection imposed by the FCC's 2015 Open Internet Order and adds a few discrete elements to the information collection requirements.

A second round of broadband infrastructure bills have been introduced by members of the House Communications Subcommittee. The bills focus on supporting innovation and advancing broadband infrastructure in rural communities. 

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission estimated in 2017 that to deploy high-speed broadband to 98 percent of American homes, it would cost $40 billion. For 100 percent, the cost doubles. Which is why greater broadband infrastructure funding — both public and private — is urgently needed in remote areas, where the cost of connectivity infrastructure remains extreme.

Verizon’s CTO said the company doesn’t plan to accelerate spending on its network due to new legislation that lowers corporate tax rates. “You probably don’t want to have big spikes in the capital allocation because then in the end it drives inefficiencies. We want to be consistent,” said Hans Vestberg, Verizon’s new CTO. “From an execution point of view you want to be consistent.” Added Vestberg: “It’s not helpful to go up and down in capital allocation because it ramps up and down resources—money wasted … But we are always debating.

AT&T and Comcast have solidified a court victory over the metro government in Nashville (TN), nullifying a rule that was meant to help Google Fiber compete against the incumbent broadband providers. The case involved Nashville's "One Touch Make Ready" ordinance that was supposed to give Google Fiber and other new Internet service providers faster access to utility poles.

Despite tying a projected five-year capital expenditure figure of $50 billion to the Federal Communications Commission’s recent decision to roll back its net neutrality mandates, an analysis of Comcast’s capital expenditures (capex) reveals that the top US cable operator was on track to spend about that much even before the agency voted to deregulate. 

Here’s how the concept of a free and open internet will continue to exist despite the repelation of these net neutrality regulations. If you’re a fan of internet freedom who would rather not pay several hundreds of dollars every year to be able to access the specific websites you like, the first and probably easiest way for you to fight back would be to use a virtual private network (VPN). But there’s a catch.