MOST BROADBAND PANELISTS LOOK FOR REGULATORY SOLUTION

There are many broadband proceedings at FCC, and Shapiro said of High-Tech Broadband Coalition (HTBC), of which CEA is part, “our best bet is at the FCC.” He said Telecom Act mandated that Commission reduce regulations to promote advanced services. HTBC also includes Business Software Alliance (BSA), TIA, the Semiconductor Industry Assn. (SIA), National Assn. of Mfrs. (NAM) and the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), none of which has carriers as members. However, Shapiro said more than 1,000 companies represented by that coalition “want to change the world” with broadband. “We feel Washington actually is hurting the deployment of broadband” through excessive regulation, he said, and FCC should ensure that broadband policy going forward is “old wires, old rules; new wires, new rules.” He said any economist would say that was necessary for Bells to have financial incentive to invest in broadband networks. Gregg differed slightly, saying interconnection obligations should remain with new Bell networks, but “most expensive” portion of that build-out, equipment at either end of pipe, should be allowed to remain exclusively with ILEC. “The competitor would have to put in a DSLAM [DSL Access Multiplexer] in the central office” if it wanted to interconnect for DSL, he said.

Former House staffer, CapNet’s Hugo appealed to Hill staffers in audience not to listen to his fellow panelists: “Who do you trust better? Yourself? Your boss? Or an unelected bureaucrat? This should be fought out in the halls of Congress.” He said: “You do not want to see national policy made at the FCC.” He said Shapiro and HTBC had “taken the guts from Tauzin-Dingell” and had “repackaged laundry detergent and called it ‘new and improved.'” He called that strategy smart, as he didn’t think Tauzin-Dingell could clear Senate. Hugo repeatedly made reference to Bells as seeking to protect and grow monopoly, and said only decline in his group’s membership was from CLECs’ going out of business.

“Individual firms often have agendas,” said Watson to room populated with lobbyists of various industries. What’s left out of discussion, he said, is getting broadband to rural areas. He took issue with estimates that 90% of U.S. had access to broadband, saying that came from FCC’s approach of calculating based on zip code. He said some zip codes covered 100 sq. mi. or more, but “the data says if one person in a zip code has access to broadband, everyone does.” (Shapiro later said that in his heavily populated suburb of Vienna, Va., he didn’t have access to broadband, much to consternation of his son.) Gregg said some rural phone companies were doing better job of deploying broadband than ILECs because they were closer to their customers, but Watson countered that non-ILECs didn’t have to worry about interconnection obligations when they deployed.

Even though topic of debate was whether same regulations should apply to all forms of broadband, discussion kept coming back specifically to bill by House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) and ranking Democrat Dingell (Mich.). Hugo said bill would put “Ma Bell,” referring to AT&T, out of business and would raise local phone and broadband prices, which would cause consumers to inundate Hill with calls, letters and e-mails. Watson said members representing rural districts, if broadband didn’t reach them soon, naturally wouldn’t be hearing from constituents by e-mail but would get their message “at the ballot box.” Shapiro repeatedly tried to avoid appearing to lobby for Tauzin-Dingell even as he was espousing some of its themes, and in fact said he had been perplexed by commercials for and against it. He did acknowledge Tauzin-Dingell had become brand name, and said he asked those members the other day “if they were running for president together.”

Despite all debate on DSL it was clear that many of panelists had broader visions in mind for broadband. “In the future, I don’t think we'll call DSL broadband,” Shapiro said, calling for “fat pipe” that could handle large bandwidths for myriad consumer services such as HDTV, which copper-based DSL is incapable of handling. Gregg referred to TIA and TechNet position of having 100 Mbps network to every home in U.S. in 10 years. One approach to that, he said, might be to take lead of country with highest per-capita penetration of broadband, S. Korea, and have govt.-mandated program that would “put all of our eggs in the DSL basket.” Gregg preferred market-based approach leading to multiple delivery systems including cable, satellite, 3G wireless and other approaches not yet conceived.