FCC Gets Conflicting Advice on Role as Broadband Adviser
It’s not clear how much the FCC will use the definitions it must provide the NTIA -- on what “broadband,” “open access” and “unserved” and “underserved” areas are -- to make broader decisions on future commission policy, commission and industry officials said Tuesday. The commission is required to act quickly, making major policy calls difficult. “The pragmatist in me says it would be difficult to do anything beyond” current policies, said an industry lawyer. “There isn’t a whole lot of time and those issues would be very contentious, slowing the process down.”
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The FCC shouldn’t offer guidance to the NTIA on the broadband grant program except where Congress has specifically required the commission to, the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors said in a filing at the FCC. Others disagreed. NATOA was one of many commenters offering the commission advice in filings required to be submitted by Monday.
NATOA asked the FCC to proceed with caution and not encroach on local governments’ role. “Any advice that the Commission provides to NTIA should be limited in scope to those matters where consultation has been sought, and should be as concise and clear as possible so as to avoid potential applicant confusion,” the group said. It said the commission should “provide guidance to NTIA that preserves local government’s explicit role” in the stimulus law.
The filings of several major broadband players weren’t specific to the FCC proceeding. AT&T, Sprint Nextel, CompTel and other groups submitted copies of comments they had filed to the NTIA and the RUS (CD April 14 p5). Others, including Qwest and the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance, trimmed and changed their comments to the other agencies, to provide only responses to questions the commission had posed.
The ITTA sent the FCC duplicates of comments made to the other agencies for convenience and efficiency, and others probably did, too, said Curt Stamp, the alliance’s president. The commission will play an important part shaping policy in the proceeding, he said, but “the money is at RUS and NTIA,” he said.
But others encouraged the FCC to take a more active role to help the NTIA and the RUS. “The Commission has developed substantial expertise with broadband issues, and has amassed a wealth of data on broadband deployment,” NECA said. The U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy agreed. “As the expert agency on telecommunications regulation and policy, the Commission has a critical, consultative role in building a strong, unified national broadband strategy.”
Broadband providers told the FCC to discourage the NTIA and the RUS from changing current policies, especially on network management and interconnection. The commission should recommend that the other agencies “avoid imposing regulatory ’strings’ or eligibility criteria that will deter participation or otherwise inhibit sustainable broadband investment and job creation,” Verizon said. Time Warner Cable, echoing other providers, asked the FCC to discourage imposition of any nondiscrimination requirements beyond the commission’s 2005 broadband policy statement. “Now is not the time, nor is this the appropriate proceeding, to engage in a debate about the need for net neutrality obligations,” Time Warner said.
The FCC’s Internet policy “has fostered growth” in information and communications technology, said the Telecommunications Industry Association. Tweaking current nondiscrimination and interconnection policy probably would “chill interest among otherwise strong applicants,” it said. TCA, a consultant to more than 100 small rural local carriers, said “all providers should have the right to practice reasonable network management techniques in a non- discriminatory manner to maintain the integrity and robustness of their networks.”
Free Press said the FCC needs to add specific rules on nondiscrimination. The principles in the broadband policy statement ensure “no blocking” and device freedom but don’t prevent other discrimination, such as favoring a provider’s content over another’s, it said.
The FCC should promote the use of its current, speed- based broadband definitions, several providers said. The commission last year said the minimum speed for broadband is 768 kbps. “Applying this definition is consistent with current law and precludes the need for lengthy analysis that will delay grant awards,” said the Telecommunications Industry Association. The competitive application process will ensure that sufficient speeds are selected, said Alcatel-Lucent. “Some … applications will focus on higher speeds, while others will focus on lower speeds, and neither necessitates an NTIA definition of broadband that differs from the existing FCC definition.”
Alcatel-Lucent said “unserved” should mean “no broadband available.” But, consistent with comments by Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va, the Telecom Subcommittee’s chairman, “a ’smattering’ of broadband in a community should not disqualify that community from being considered ‘unserved,'” it said. The FCC should advise NTIA “to be flexible,” the company said. “Every market is different, and hard and fast definitions may undercut the purpose of BTOP.” Alcatel advised FCC to define underserved broadly. “A market that has a high degree of broadband penetration, but not 100 percent deployment, is underserved in that not every home has access to broadband,” the company said. “A market that has 100 percent penetration of current generation broadband -- DSL, Cable Modem, 3G wireless, microwave, etc -- but no next generation broadband in the form of FTTN, FTTP, or 4G wireless is an underserved market.”