Genachowski Seeks Industry Data on Broadband Availability for USF CAF

Cable operators of all sizes can help the FCC’s spectrum efficiency quest, Genachowski said in a Q-and-A with ACA President Matt Polka. The cable TV relay service (CARS) of microwave systems used by operators to get signals from remote places can coexist with wireless backhaul uses, Genachowski said. “We'll continue to preserve it with your help,” he said of CARS. “Let’s use it for CARS and wireless backhaul and be sure neither of them interfere with each other,” something the agency hopes to do with other bands “and not to do this in a way that undermines existing services or creates interference,” he continued.

They're “opportunities” for using white spaces spectrum -- at least for top operators, Genachowski said. “There’s no question that larger cable companies are looking at unlicensed spectrum like Wi-Fi and saying, ‘Wow, this is something we can use to create value for our customers, to compete.'” Genachowski wondered aloud if smaller operators also could use the unlicensed spectrum. He'd be open to holding a workshop or other meeting on “what are some of the opportunities people are seeing around the country, around the world” for Wi-Fi, he said.

Genachowski made a case for why the commission needs good data from industry to fund broadband projects, which he acknowledged may take a while to get money so that waste is minimized. “Our ability to ensure that money flows to areas where there is no infrastructure … will depend a lot on the quality of the data,” which also will come from the NTIA’s broadband map, he said. “It’s in everyone’s interest to take seriously the data requests we make and to realize we can’t do our job without data.” The FCC doesn’t “want to ask for one piece of data that we don’t need” and “we understand that particularly for small companies, data requests are distracting, burdensome,” Genachowski said. “We understand for smaller cable operators that it’s important to take into account the concerns you have for being smaller, and we have in a whole series of ways. It would not be useful on this issue for you to say we cannot provide you with any data because we're small.” Sitting next to Polka, he said that “when Matt pounds on you a little and says you really need to do this, he’s right."

ACA members can help extend broadband to unserved areas by bidding in auctions the FCC will hold to serve areas adjacent to where they have systems, Genachowski said. “All the companies here are right next to areas where there isn’t any broadband infrastructure” because it’s not “cost effective” to provide fast-Internet service, he said. The competitive bidding process is “designed to open the doors for companies like yours to bid to provide service in areas that don’t have service. I encourage you all to take that seriously” since it’s “a real business opportunity,” Genachowski continued. “I'd be really excited to come to a town that’s served by an ACA company as a result of a partnership” on CAF, and he'll visit the first that does it, he said.

Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., seeks more broadband and bipartisanship. Broadband deployment is a priority “even though we're in a very difficult budget environment,” he said. Moving any bills through Congress nowadays is difficult, because there are many incentives not to cooperate between political parties, Pryor said. “Common sense just goes out the window.” Congress’s problems of having difficultly passing bills can be fixed, but it will take “political will” to do it, he said.

Pryor said he'll keep working with Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, to move an administrative agency regulatory reform bill “sometime in the next few months.” S-1606, introduced by Portman, would make changes to the Administrative Procedure Act governing many agencies including the FCC. The senators want agencies to bring stakeholders into regulatory issues earlier in the process, do cost-benefit analyses and demonstrate the adopted rule is “the least costly way to get to the result they want to get to,” Pryor said. While bipartisan, the bill “won’t be without controversy,” he said.

Pryor supports passing cybersecurity legislation this year, and said he hasn’t committed to the approach in S-2105 by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., or the one in S-2151 by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Pryor hopes that the bills will be merged and win broad support, he said. Regulations will be needed, but they should be “as light as they can be” while still being effective, he said. Pryor also seeks action on privacy and data breaches, a problem that frequently leads to identify theft, he said.

The ACA will continue to give the FCC “specific information” on USF, Polka told reporters: The fund is “a priority” for the association, whose top focus is on changing retransmission consent rules. (See separate report in this issue). On USF, Polka said the association wants to “ensure there is no subsidized competitor in an area” where an ACA member already sells broadband.

Some ACA board members are skeptical the government can hand out CAF money only to places not served by any ISP. “I'm not convinced the government” can “ensure that the money goes to the right places,” Wave Broadband Chief Operating Officer Steve Friedman said. WideOpenWest won’t likely bid, said CEO Colleen Abdoulah. There likely will be “a fair number” of ACA members that will see if CAF areas are next to their systems and some “will seek that money,” Massillon Cable President Robert Gessner said: But many small operators “have already built” out broadband to all areas they can.