The FCC and NTIA launched new Web sites Thursday as government agencies work to meet President Obama’s openness directive. The FCC took the wraps off its long-awaited Reboot.FCC.gov site, which includes an official FCC blog and a discussion forum for users to submit, vote and comment on ideas for reforming FCC processes and redesigning the agency’s Web site. Meanwhile, NTIA and Rural Utilities Service (RUS) revealed BroadbandMatch, a forum for broadband stimulus applicants to connect and form partnerships.
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Senior Editor, is the state and local telecommunications reporter for Communications Daily, where he also has covered Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. He has won awards for his Warren Communications News reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Specialized Information Publishers Association and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of dystopian science-fiction novels. You can follow Bender at WatchAdam.blog and @WatchAdam on Twitter.
Net neutrality rules are needed to prevent ISP price discrimination that reduces content developer incentives to create for the Internet, said New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity in a report released Thursday. Allowing ISPs to move to a model like cable TV where service providers may charge for content access would lock out independent and startup content makers, said economics fellow Scott Holladay in a conference call Thursday. Permitting discrimination isn’t the way to promote broadband deployment, said Executive Director Michael Livermore. “Content providers are the last ones you would want to tax to fund the network, because [they] are generating positive externalities. You don’t go out and tax people that are basically creating free value for the economy.” Livermore endorsed the FCC’s proposed rules, which he said provide clear, high-level guidelines, while allowing the agency to take a case-by-case approach when necessary. “The [proposed] rule actually operates at a fairly high level of generality, and so it sets the stage and provides some degree of certainty for people making business decisions, but at the same time there’s lots of flexibility in the rule for the FCC on a case-by-case basis to adjudicate new questions.” The same rules should apply to wired and wireless networks, said Holladay, because they're both “limited resources that face the same type of constraints.”
Civil rights advocates lambasted the FCC’s defense for waiving sunshine rules in October only for blog comments. Last month, FCC Associate General Counsel Joel Kaufman told the civil rights group that differences between blog comments and ex parte filings made waiving sunshine restrictions appropriate for only the Open Internet blog in advance of the FCC’s Oct. 22 meeting on network neutrality (CD Dec 11 p11). In an application for review Tuesday, the League of United Latin American Citizens said the waiver unfairly locked out people without Internet access. “This is not just a question of some members of the public being relegated to ’steerage’ while others are given priority in first class; rather, it is about the Commission leaving members of the public at the dock while the net neutrality ship sails away.”
Comprehensive FCC action by July on jurisdictional separations may be a long shot, given a short time frame and ongoing work on the National Broadband Plan, said officials for state commissions and state consumer advocates. The FCC may again extend the nearly nine-year-old freeze on separations, which expires June 30, they said. “Another freeze is certainly a possibility,” said Commissioner John Burke of the Vermont Public Service Board. If the FCC chooses to go in that direction, state regulators believe “interim changes to key factors are an absolute pre-requisite to extending final comprehensive review beyond June of this year,” he said.
AT&T asked the FCC to set a deadline to move telecom from circuit-switched to IP-based networks. The request came in comments this week on an FCC National Broadband Plan public notice that proposed the release of a notice of inquiry (NOI) on the transition. Small rural carriers cautioned the commission not to move too fast. Meanwhile, competitive carriers fought with Verizon over whether interconnection and traffic exchange requirements under Sections 251 and 252 of the Communications Act apply to IP networks. Wireless carriers said the rules should ensure regulatory parity.
Responding to industry accusations of bias, a Harvard University center said its conclusion that open-access policies spurred broadband in several foreign countries had been based on a review of 57 studies. In a 68-page memo released Monday, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society specified the studies, and it outlined updates planned for the final version of its report, requested by the FCC for developing the National Broadband Plan and coming in mid- January. Berkman’s first draft was criticized as unfair (CD Nov 18 p7) by incumbent broadband providers including USTelecom and NCTA.
Most FCC employees got a snow day Monday because the federal government in Washington, D.C., was shut, commission officials said. But National Broadband Plan coordinator Blair Levin and many of his team were at the office, an official said. The commission held a field hearing as planned in Chicago on broadband for small businesses. (See separate report in this issue.) On Twitter, the commission’s New Media team said, “Social media does not slow in snow.”
Shure raised concerns about a proposed June 12 deadline to clear unlicensed wireless microphones out of the 700 MHz band. The date, the first anniversary of the analog TV cutoff, was proposed in a draft order circulated late Thursday by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski (CD Dec 18 p1). “While it will be helpful to users and manufacturers for the FCC to announce its decision on the transition of 700 MHz wireless microphones and a specific date, we are concerned that such an expedited timeframe is simply not enough time for many users to accomplish all that needs to be done to replace these relatively complicated systems,” said a Shure spokesman. “Once users learn of the rule change, the replacement must be planned; bids must be solicited from vendors; funding for this unbudgeted expense must be secured; products must be acquired; and finally, the equipment must be installed and tested. This is not like buying a new cordless phone that merely needs to be taken out of the box, plugged in, and placed on the kitchen counter. For many users, it will be more like a kitchen renovation.” But CTIA President Steve Largent said he’s “pleased to see the Commission is moving forward on this important effort.” The association believes “clearing the 700 MHz is a necessary precursor to bringing spectrum to the market and will help facilitate broadband deployment around the country,” he said.
Verizon Wireless charges an early termination fee for smartphones that’s double the one for regular cellphones because of their costs, the carrier told the FCC by letter late Friday. Responding to an inquiry this month by the commission’s Wireless and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureaus, Verizon Wireless also said early termination fees promote broadband adoption. But states said the letter only highlights the need for an FCC review of the fees. Consumers Union said the carrier filed a “disingenuous” explanation for shaking more money out of its customers’ wallets. An increase in the fee by Verizon Wireless prompted a bill by Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota to limit charges of its kind and require disclosures.
Consumer advocates for the deaf urged action to fix fraud and other problems with the Video Relay Services fund, in a workshop Thursday at the FCC. They called for better and more transparent oversight to promote functional equivalency required by the Americans With Disabilities Act. Thursday’s forum was a chance to “reevaluate and review video relay service and the program as a way to build on its strengths and weed out its deficiencies,” said Greg Hlibok, an attorney in the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau.