Telcos, ISPs Say State Commissions Easy to Work With; Small Provider IDs FCC Challenges
INDIANAPOLIS -- As they extend broadband to hard-to-serve areas, some with subsidies from states and the FCC, ISPs are aiming to upgrade speeds, working in public-private partnerships and getting pole space from electric cooperatives and others. Some providers are doing this using multiple technologies, including fiber and licensed and unlicensed spectrum, they said on a NARUC panel Monday. They said state telecom commissions are generally easy to work with and one speaker identified some challenges at the federal level.
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The various efforts are having an effect, after some providers had an uneven track record of extending online services, said moderator and NARUC board member Chris Nelson. There used to be "big blotches, big pieces" of geography without broadband, said South Dakota Public Utilities Commission Vice Chairman Nelson. Now, "small puzzle pieces" or "niches" are getting smaller, he said. He's seeing "unique business models" fill these holes.
"To say there’s one great technology that’s going to fix everything, there really is not. We do a little bit of it all," said Pine Telephone General Manager Jerry Whisenhunt. "Some of it is hybrid." Cable operator and phone provider Midco uses methods like fiber and wireless spectrum, noted Director-Government Relations Andrew Curley in an interview. He said it reaches about 90 percent of its footprint with download speeds of 1 Gbps and is targeting 100 percent "soon." It plans to spend about $500 million over 10 years to upgrade to 10 Gbps as part of the cable industry's 10G initiative (see 1901070048), he told us. Both companies have gotten FCC Connect America Fund money for broadband, their representatives said.
Whisenhunt told the audience Pine Telephone entered the ISP business when "the internet providers didn’t come. Although we have that great connection from our office to every customer, the big internet providers didn’t show up. So we started an internet company" and offered pay TV. A "big guy" didn’t build fiber, he said without naming that provider, "walking away from rural America."
The LEC executive also laid some blame on Apple. The iPhone maker hasn't allowed Pine's devices to use its Voice over LTE network, although those roaming on the LEC's network can use VoLTE, Whisenhunt said. He said that's because his is "such a small company." He told NARUC members "I beg to you, at some point, I don’t claim to know the cybersecurity, but I do know that ... someone needs to let the little companies use their devices." Of Pine, he said "we’re the little guys who don’t count" and "a lot of the great innovation that comes along gets turned off for us." Apple didn't comment.
Whisenhunt said state commissions "have been great to work with" and one helped Pine work with a local electric co-op, but "when we get to the FCC, we can’t afford the lobbyists" that big providers can: "We’re basically shut out." Wireless ISP Association CEO Claude Aiken has "heard nothing but positive reactions from folks who are engaging with a state commission process for the first time," he said of WISPA members. Wireless technology "is fantastic; how it is deployed can vary," he responded to a commissioner's question about moving telco services from landlines to wireless. Some may use "cobbled together spectrum that doesn’t really work the best," Aiken continued. Partnerships between his members and electric co-ops can work well, and he hopes for more such pacts: "It sort of intuitively makes sense, because there is infrastructure already deployed."
Pine uses Huawei for wireless gear, the small telco's GM said. "We’ll see where that ends up," he noted, to some audience laughter. "I absolutely trust them," he said, speaking seriously, about the government on possible national security risks from Chinese gear makers. "We've just got to wait and see" what the FCC does on its proceeding, Whisenhunt said in a later interview. Pine has used Huawei for 3G and LTE, and with a software upgrade, could move to 5G, he said. The commission declined to comment on its timeline. A later panel focused on Huawei (see 1907220041).
Comcast Vice President-Regulatory Affairs, Northeast Division Stacey Parker outlined what the company looks for in broadband grant programs. She said "public private partnerships really can work." She cited the company's state subsidies including in Massachusetts, which has rural areas, to which Parker said attendee NARUC Telecom Committee Chair and Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable Commissioner Karen Charles Peterson could attest. Parker said the operator wants tech-neutral programs not limited to eligible telecom carriers, "no regulatory [reach] on the broadband service" and to own the network.