Wireline
The National Broadband Plan offers recommendations for increasing broadband adoption without increasing the Universal Service Fund and without new legislation, an FCC official said during a webinar. “We didn’t want to throw everything back into the lap of Congress,” said…
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Wireline Deputy Bureau Chief Carol Mattey. Congress is providing insight and holding oversight hearings, “but we started off with basic design principles for reform that we can take care of ourselves,” she said. Goals of the plan include leading the world in mobile innovation, providing 1 Gbps access to anchor institutions in every community and supplying first responders a nationwide wireless broadband network, said Jon Banks, USTelecom senior vice president of law and policy. The commission also recommends establishing competition policies and creating incentives for universal availability and adoption. “Telecom companies tend to pay the highest rate for pole attachments,” he said. “The FCC is looking to drive down the cost of that part of broadband infrastructure.” As part of a USF and intercarrier compensation overhaul, the FCC plans to transform the high-cost program into the Connect America Fund in a three phase process over the next 10 years, Mattey said (CD March 8 p1). The overhaul will involve dispensing with per-minute intercarrier-compensation charges, said Rebekah Goodheart, an FCC policy adviser.