Panelists Mull Broadband Deployment Strategies

The real solution to spurring broadband deployment is simpler than some regulatory schemes, said attorney Robert Rini: “It’s greater tax incentives. If the role of government is to encourage facilities-based services, tax incentives go a long way to encourage more choices for consumers.”

Attorney/moderator Erin Dozier said consumer demand often is said to drive broadband deployment and asked panelists where they stood on that. Attorney Cherie Kiser said “business needs to do a better job of helping people understand how to use products.” Until that happens, product development isn’t as much of a spur as it should be, she said: “There are some great products out there, but consumers don’t have sufficient information on how to use them.”

“Less is more” when it comes to regulation and the growth of wireless services is an example of how a “light touch” can stimulate consumer products, said Rini. Regulators should encourage companies to introduce products to the market and “let the market drive” their success, said Kiser. However, maybe policymakers could spend “less time on deregulating entities with market power and more addressing issues that have been pending for years” such as intercarrier compensation and universal service that would make it easier for businesses to roll out products and services.”

“For consumer electronics, access is the key” to competition on all levels, from application development to network provision, said CEA Regulatory Counsel Julie Kearney. “The key is not too much government intervention, to have open markets,” she said. Relying on intermodal competition “has its limits” said attorney Harvey Reiter. Technical problems sometimes prevent DSL’s use in rural areas and satellite has latency problems, he said. It’s good to encourage broadband platforms to compete but there’s also value to access regulation, he said.

Asked to name one policy the FCC should undertake to promote broadband, Reiter said he would reverse the policy that deregulated wireline and cable broadband service and replace it with a policy of “nondiscriminatory access.” Kiser recommended giving more emphasis to powerline communications. If facilities-based service is a goal, “who is in every home? The electric utility.” Rini said he would “ask the government to get out of the way” because “I don’t think it’s the government’s role to pick winners and losers.” The “key is to have multiple pipes, getting more spectrum out there and having competition on every level,” be it backhaul or applications and content, said Kathleen Ham, T-Mobile managing dir.-federal regulatory affairs.

Asked to predict how broadband will be described in 10 years, Ham said “fast and lots of it.” CEA’s Julie Kearney predicted communications would be “minimum T-1” speed. Rini foresaw “cheap universal access” and Reiter said “beat’s me.” -- Edie Herman

Symposium Notebook…

Moving to a USF contributions system based on telephone numbers won’t raise costs of low volume consumers nearly as much as some public interest groups have said, according to industry panelists at a symposium Tues. at Catholic U. law school. Low volume users might see some increase under a numbers-based contributions process proposed by Verizon and Verizon Wireless but it wouldn’t be very big, said Verizon Vp Kathy Grillo. She said Verizon’s plan is based on $1 a line, with an additional 50 cents for extra lines. A CTIA numbers- based variation wouldn’t raise rates, said CTIA Regulatory Policy Dir. Paul Garnett. He said the typical customer now pays about $1 a line, not counting long distance calls. CTIA’s plan, hammered out to satisfy the association’s “very diverse membership” would still be “a buck” and customers wouldn’t see added cost for long distance calls, he said. On another issue, moderator Gary Epstein, a Latham & Watkins partner, asked if panelists thought the FCC or Congress had the “political will” to fully restructure the universal service program. Grillo said probably not -- changes probably will occur one-by-one. “Maybe that’s the best way to do it,” she said. Garnett said: “I hate questions like that.” Policymakers “continue to talk about it,” he said.

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An industry executive who once ran FCC spectrum auctions strongly warned against use of blind bidding in an upcoming advanced wireless auction. The FCC has been considering the idea and Chmn. Martin has said he plans to ask for a vote on the idea. T-Mobile Managing Dir. Kathleen Ham, speaking Tues. at a Catholic U. law school symposium, said the FCC used blind bidding in the first auction it ran in the early 1990s “and it turned out not to be so blind” because identities often were “leaked,” she said. Leaks spur confusion, among other things, she said. The Commission thought blind bidding would help small bidders but such bidders turned out to be “afraid of the unknown,” she said: “You don’t conduct the stock market by blind bidding.” In sum, she said, “we don’t like it.”