WildBlue Makes Pitch to Get in on USF Reforms
OMAHA, Neb. -- The FCC shouldn’t fall for the “misperception” that satellite can’t provide effective voice and broadband service, WildBlue Vice President Lisa Scalpone said late Wednesday at a commission workshop on changing the Universal Service Fund to pay for Internet service. “We don’t want to be foreclosed,” she told federal and state regulators, including FCC members Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn. ViaSat, WildBlue’s parent, is scheduled to launch ViaSat-1 in July. Scalpone said that once that satellite is operational, WildBlue will go from download speeds of 2 Mbps to 12 Mbps. “At least let satellite perform in pilot programs,” she said. “We'll have the programs up and running."
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FCC leaders have made clear that they want to move to orders on USF quickly -- perhaps by the end of the summer. Scalpone said that satellite is being judged by its reputation, not by its actions. Once ViaSat-1 gets going, WildBlue will be the cheapest solution for high-cost areas, she told us. Satellite has earned its reputation for slow service, Scalpone acknowledged, but she said hers is the only sector being singled out for current technology, not prospective technology. Wireless carriers’ USF pitches are mostly based on 4G projections, Scalpone said.
Satellite has been excluded from the proposed first phase of USF overhaul, Scalpone said. “Let’s move to the second phase as quickly as possible.” If there are concerns that a fast transition through reforms will leave communities dark, the commission could roll funds into “an emergency catch-all” to mitigate the damage, she said.
Satellite’s fair-play appeal also got a tacit endorsement from University of Nebraska telecom research fellow Ken Dick. The commission should be “technologically ambivalent,” he said. “Whenever you start to regulate technology, you're chasing the game,” he told Chairman Julius Genachowski and staff. “If it’s technologically specific, you're behind the curve. All I want is access -- I want it as fast as I can get it."
"Satellite’s going to be part of the solution,” CenturyLink Director Jeff Lanning said. The best solution may well be having partnerships between satellite and other telcos, he said. Vermont Public Service Board member John Burke said that that the “gorilla we've been dancing around” remained the contribution factor. Expanding the scope of contributions would address many of the distribution problems the FCC is facing, Burke said.