ASPEN, Colo. -- The impending spectrum auctions and electronic communications privacy are likely to be issues this Congress tackles, former members said during a Monday panel hosted by the Technology Policy Institute at its Aspen Forum. The panel included former Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va., now a partner at Sidley Austin; Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., now a senior adviser at APCO Worldwide; and Thomas Tauke, R-Iowa, formerly an executive vice president at Verizon.
If the FCC’s quantile regression analysis (QRA) caps were in place from 2006-2012, they would have caused “tremendous financial uncertainty” that could have prevented carriers from investing in broadband, said industry-sponsored research. The study (http://bit.ly/1bhvQAv), by former FCC Chief Economist Simon Wilkie, examined the effects of the FCC’s 2011 modifications to the USF’s high-cost loop support mechanism. A better implementation would be to use the caps not as an immediate limit on support, but as a “trigger” for further individualized attention from the agency, Wilkie said. An FCC spokesman said the reforms “provide much-needed fiscal discipline” on the fund.
The FCC should use unclaimed money from the Connect America Fund to jumpstart the development of “gigabit communities,” proposed the Fiber to the Home Council Americas on Tuesday. In a petition, the association of telecom providers, utilities and municipalities said the unspent CAF USF money should be distributed as “catalyst funding” to support deployment of ultra-high speed networks with symmetrical gigabit services for community anchor institutions and surrounding neighborhoods.
The FCC should use unclaimed money from the Connect America Fund to jumpstart the development of “gigabit communities,” proposed the Fiber to the Home Council Americas on Tuesday. In a petition, the association of telecom providers, utilities and municipalities said the unspent CAF USF money should be distributed as “catalyst funding” to support deployment of ultra-high speed networks with symmetrical gigabit services for community anchor institutions and surrounding neighborhoods.
Changing dynamics in Washington may influence the balance of federalism, multiple state utility commissioners told us. Commissioners from around the country will gather in Denver Sunday through Wednesday for NARUC’s summer meeting and will address questions of state-federal relations as part of NARUC’s Task Force on Telecom and Federalism and in policy debates. The state role remains critical, said the commissioners, stressing evolving technologies and consumer protections after years of what some consider federal and industry overreach. The five draft telecom resolutions being considered also speak to these changes, they said.
An FCC rulemaking on potential changes to the federal E-rate program has touched a political nerve in a Washington, where the debate takes place against the backdrop of a bigger fight between Republicans and Democrats over entitlement reform. The NPRM, teed up for a vote Friday, builds on a June speech by President Barack Obama urging the commission to make high-speed Internet available to enough schools and libraries to connect 99 percent of American students (CD June 7 p7).
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said work on the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum is moving forward as well as could be expected. Genachowski is pleased the agency has launched a critical debate headed into an auction that could start as early as next year, he said in an interview Friday as he prepared to leave the commission. Genachowski, a friend of President Barack Obama, chaired the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Policy Working Group during the 2008 Obama presidential campaign, and has been on the job since June 2009.
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell leaves office expressing some concerns about work left undone, especially on rules for an incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum and media ownership reform. McDowell, a commissioner since 2006, was a surprise choice when nominated, but was viewed as a top candidate for chairman if Mitt Romney was elected president last year. Like Chairman Julius Genachowski he plans to leave Friday, leaving behind a 2-1 commission. McDowell said Tuesday his first stop will be the Hudson Institute’s Center for Economics of the Internet, where he will be a visiting fellow.
The FCC may be putting too much focus on cutting abuses in the Lifeline program and not enough on making sure everyone who needs support gets it, said members of the agency’s Consumer Advisory Committee. Lifeline reform was the subject of a contentious hearing Thursday by the House Communications Subcommittee (CD April 26 p1), the day before CAC met at commission headquarters.