The federal government has failed in pioneering U.S....

substantial action to change the investment equation in the near-term, states and cities must act to do so,” Levin said, according to his prepared remarks (http://bit.ly/Xs9g1D). The Wisconsin Public Service Commission is hosting a symposium on how to advance broadband adoption and deployment Thursday and Friday of this week in Madison, Wis. The PSC includes its own state broadband director, Tithi Chattopadhyay, who started last fall and has helped lead the PSC’s broadband efforts, which include a broadband playbook (1.usa.gov/XqhZvV) directed toward state legislators and policy officials. The playbook was formally released and presented in late March, although it was initially completed and went through a round of comments last fall. It “is a tool that all stakeholders need to study and explore to identify specific broadband actions and initiatives that can be considered for the state,” said the PSC commissioners in their March letter presenting the 15-page book. The symposium included a keynote from Levin, who helped manage the creation of the National Broadband Plan, and panels with industry and state officials. The National Broadband Plan struggled because “D.C. culture doesn’t lend itself to effective experimentation,” Levin said in his speech. “The Broadband Plan analysis demonstrated that the biggest problem for unserved areas stemmed from the lack of incentives to upgrade the networks in areas dominated by the three largest wireline phone companies.” Levin did credit the success of the $4 billion broadband stimulus program. He questioned the FCC’s USF reform and said the major companies “have indicated the reform package will not catalyze significant network deployments” and pointed to smaller companies that have stalled progress due to the uncertainty the reform created. The shortcomings of the reform “put it in a hole,” he said, noting it misses the impact of 4G and wireless and satellite on rural regions that need more bandwidth. “In sum, while the FCC shifted billions of dollars around, the combination of carrots and sticks created by the FCC actions has resulted in minimal deployments in the most problematic unserved areas identified in the Plan, a slowdown of deployment in other areas, consumers paying more, a failure to anticipate future needs and a punt of a central issue.” He praised local experimentation with broadband networks and noted how aware cities are of competing with one another. “Cities, and not the federal government, are leading in experimenting with new forms of mutual agreements that serve today and tomorrow’s needs,” Levin said, expressing confidence in municipal leadership and implicitly criticizing laws that restrict municipally owned networks: “We should also squarely look at the conflict that occurs when a state curtails a city’s ability to take control of its own bandwidth destiny.” The FCC disputed the characterization: “The Commission’s reform of USF to create the Connect America Fund is expanding broadband to rural Americans who lack access while for the first time putting the Fund on a budget, though we're still in the early innings,” an FCC spokesman said in response to Levin’s speech. “Last July, the Connect America Fund began connecting nearly 400,000 Americans unserved by broadband in 37 states. Last October, the Commission launched the Mobility Fund, providing $300 million to extend advanced mobile wireless service on up to 83,000 unserved road miles in 31 states, reaching areas where millions of Americans live, work, or travel. This October, the new Tribal Mobility Fund will provide $50 million to increase availability of advanced mobile services on Tribal Lands.” The spokesman emphasized broadband plans to come. “The Commission is also on track to launch, later this year, both the second phase of the Connect America Fund, which will distribute up to $1.8 billion a year to deploy broadband to millions of Americans across the country, and the second phase of the Mobility Fund, which will distribute $500 million annually to deploy mobile broadband to unserved areas,” he said. “The FCC has accomplished this entirely through savings from reforms, without increasing the size of the Fund or the cost to consumers and small businesses who pay into it. In fact, thanks to the Commission’s reforms of Lifeline, the overall size of USF -- and the USF contribution factor -- are both shrinking since reforms took effect. The contribution factor has decreased in each of the past two quarters, dropping nearly 15% from its high.” Intercarrier compensation reform will “unleash over $1.5 billion in annual benefits to consumers by eliminating hidden calling costs while removing major barriers to deployments of advanced IP-based broadband networks, such as AT&T’s announcement in November that it would substantially expand its U-Verse footprint,” the spokesman added. “Together, these reforms put the country on track to connect the 19 million Americans who lack service by the end of the decade.”