Verizon Lobbying to Focus on Broadband Access
Verizon isn’t seeking “sweeping” telecom legislation this Congress, Exec. Vp Public Affairs Tom Tauke told reporters Mon. The 2007 focus is getting broadband to consumers who lack it, but that doesn’t demand major legislation, he said. Congress simply may need to refocus existing grant and loan programs, Tauke said.
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“Part of the problem is getting a good handle on where the gaps are and what the needs are,” Tauke said, adding that he thinks Congress wants to address the issue. He plans to promote for Congressional consideration a Ky. public-private partnership program to build out broadband access across that state. “I'm not sure how much congressional action is needed” to promote broadband access, but it’s probably worthwhile for Congress to take a look at this issue, Tauke said. Action should be taken “fairly soon,” he added.
The company has been talking to members of Congress and state officials about the Ky. project, which had as a key part an inventory of who lacks broadband access, Tauke said. Doing this has helped Ky. greatly improve deployment, he said. “We believe this is the appropriate way to tackle the goal of access to broadband,” he said: “The key is the inventory.”
As for last year’s franchise effort, which collapsed over net neutrality, Hill activity raised the issue’s profile, spurring FCC action and encouraging states to enact franchise laws, Tauke said. Those activities broke the logjam, and Verizon is content with the status quo, he said. Verizon also worries about interoperability, and Tauke hopes Congress follows through on plans that have been set, he said. Cyren Call’s proposal is a govt. subsidy for a business, he said: “We don’t think that makes sense.”
Verizon may not participate in the Universal Service Fund (USF) auction that the company proposed late last week, Tauke told reporters. “We like to keep the wireless space unregulated, and when you have your hand out to government [for USF subsidies], it’s hard to argue against regulation,” he said. The proposal offered to the Federal-State Universal Service Joint Board “is less about Verizon Wireless than about what is the right policy,” Tauke said.
As Communications Daily reported (CD Feb 12 p2), the plan calls for separate auctions, first to some wireless companies for USF subsidies and later to some wireline providers. “I think we have an idea worth pursuing” because it would be equitable, bring stability to a beleaguered USF and encourage innovation, Tauke said. The wireless auction would occur first because that’s “where we have multiple carriers in the most areas,” he said.
Among Tauke’s other comments: (1) Verizon is “making a greater capital investment than any other company” in the U.S., a gauge of the company’s focus on broadband deployment. A chart he proffered showed Verizon had capital expenditures of close to $45 billion the past 3 years, more than Wal-Mart, GE, Exxon Mobil and other companies. (2) “We think we are paying more than cable” for video programming, but “our sense is we are moving to a point where the market will work.”