Free Press and big broadband providers drew different conclusions about future broadband investment and competition from a broadband report requested by the FCC for its National Broadband Plan, written by the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI). In comments Friday, companies said the study highlighted significant industry investment, while Free Press said it showed consumers “are faced with slow speeds, high prices and few choices.” Meanwhile, the Satellite Industry Association objected to the report’s assessment of the quality of satellite broadband.
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.
Health care providers and the telecom industry urged changes to universal service rules, as the FCC collected comment Friday on how broadband helps health care delivery. Some urged more spectrum allocation and renewed calls for a national public safety wireless network. All said broadband is key to providing better health care.
Increasing the number of telecom competitors has historically reduced consumer complaints, Georgetown University professor John Mayo said at a forum at the school. A 10 percent increase in the number of entrants reduces complaints 8 percent on average, he said. Research about customer satisfaction in telecom should take into account that not all consumers respond to poor service the same way, Mayo said. Some complain, some switch providers, and some “suffer in silence,” he said. The rise of the iPhone and other smartphones has created envy among users of more basic devices, said CTIA Research Vice President Robert Roche. People who get basic handsets at no extra charge with service contracts tend to be more dissatisfied with their phone’s features than customers who pay for basic phones, he said. Roche said a common complaint by smartphone owners relates to how quickly providers release new applications. Many carriers roll out apps slowly to reduce the risk of capacity crunches, he said. “It’s almost a ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ phenomenon.” Consumer complaints about iPhone exclusivity “seem to be a case of an embarrassment of riches,” Mayo said. “If the iPhone were less successful, we would have had less complaining about this.” AT&T’s exclusive for the device has prompted imitation by Verizon and other carriers “that has created a leapfrogging of innovation that winds up being a bit of a blessing,” he said. “The complaint process in that case may have less informative value about the need to take corrective action than it would be a compliment to the success of the marketplace.”
FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker wants a spectrum policy plan that’s not just a “subset” of the National Broadband Plan, she said at a Phoenix Center event Thursday. The “cross-governmental long-term strategic framework” on spectrum “should be one of our major efforts of 2010 and should chart the government’s course well into the decade,” she said. The plan would include a spectrum inventory and a review of secondary market rules, she said. “By taking full stock of our spectrum resources and how they are being used, and adapting secondary market and service rules to the changed conditions and technologies we have today, I think we can make great strides to help ensure that the U.S. consumers are the beneficiaries of a world-class mobile broadband infrastructure.”
Engineers from major broadband providers cautioned against restrictive regulation they said could hinder companies’ ability to ensure customer satisfaction and prevent cyberattacks. But an FCC official told a Phoenix Center event Thursday that the agency needs more data on the cost and customer value of fighting network congestion. In a separate panel, economists said it’s tough to make a case today for broadband regulation.
The National Emergency Numbers Association urged the FCC to establish a subsidy mechanism for public safety that follows the model of the Universal Service Fund E-rate program. In comments on a National Broadband Plan public notice on public safety broadband issues, NENA and other public safety groups said adequate broadband service isn’t available in rural and tribal areas. Meanwhile, disabilities-rights advocates backed upgrades to the 911 system to support relay services for the deaf.
The NTIA and RUS received a bevy of proposed rule changes as they prepare to move ahead with the second and final round of broadband stimulus funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In comments on the agencies’ November request for information (CD Nov 12 p1), broadband providers and others cited many problems in the first round that they said discouraged participation or colored results. Many of the comments were unreadable Tuesday due to problems on the agencies’ stimulus Web site, BroadbandUSA.gov.
The FCC will soon issue a further notice of proposed rulemaking on Universal Service Fund high-cost support for non-rural carriers like Qwest, said two agency officials. The commission committed to release a rulemaking notice by Dec. 15 and a final order by April 16, as it works toward responding to a 2005 remand by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (CD June 11 p7). In 2005, the court called unlawful the FCC’s current non-rural rules, which address carriers like Qwest that serve high-cost areas with too many lines to be considered “rural” by the statutory definition. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski last week circulated the notice, which contains tentative conclusions, agency officials said. One described the tentative conclusions as very bare with “not a lot of new ideas,” and said the further rulemaking notice seems designed as a “punt.” Commission spokeswoman Jen Howard declined to comment. Meanwhile, industry meetings with the FCC on a comprehensive USF overhaul have been heating up (CD Nov 27 p5). The impetus seems to be the non-rural support item and an expectation among industry that the regulator will tee up reform in the National Broadband Plan due this February, agency officials said. Monday, Windstream phoned an aide to Genachowski about the agency’s rulemaking notice on the 10th Circuit remand, urging the FCC to seek input on how to better target federal universal service support directly to granular high-cost areas, an ex-parte filing said. Windstream said the FCC should stop distinguishing between rural and non-rural carriers, and kill eligibility requirements based on statewide average costs. President John Rose of the Organization for the Promotion & Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies met separately Monday with aides to Commissioners Michael Copps, Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker, said an ex-parte filing. The meetings focused on USF and intercarrier compensation reform “in the context of” the plan, OPASTCO said.
Interest in aerial fiber backhaul is rising as wireless carriers look to reduce costs of upgrading networks for 3G and 4G broadband, but some fear stringing fiber from poles may leave cellphone networks more susceptible to outages. Aerial fiber is cheaper to install than buried plant but is more vulnerable to ice storms, hurricanes and other forces of nature, said industry officials. However, some said aerial fiber outages can be dealt with quickly if companies are prepared.
The FCC ordered a rural local-exchange carrier accused by Qwest of “traffic pumping” to pay the big carrier damages for violations of Sections 203(c) and 201(b) of the 1934 Communications Act. In a second reconsideration order in a dispute between Qwest and Farmers and Merchants Mutual Telephone, the commission said Wednesday new evidence from Qwest proved “unjust and unreasonable” Farmers’ charges to the big carrier for traffic generated by free conferencing providers that Farmers had business arrangements with. Farmers had a deal to pay the conferencing companies for sending traffic to numbers in its exchange.