Commenters generally supported a process proposed by the FCC Wireline Bureau to let parties challenge census blocks misidentified by the National Broadband Map (NBM). The process would let parties challenge census blocks identified as eligible to receive Connect America Fund Phase II support, when the parties argue they're actually unserved by an unsubsidized competitor. Cable and wireless ISPs offered some tweaks to the process. USTelecom and several rural associations offered alternative proposals that would involve recommendations by state authorities.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn spoke alongside several entrepreneurs in a discussion about how to promote innovative technologies and what regulatory structures should oversee them, at a lunch event Wednesday in Washington. In the State of the Union, President Barack Obama talked of jobs and other economic developments tied to “digital opportunity,” said National Coalition on Black Civic Participation President Melanie Campbell. “All of us have to be advocates.” Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter argued that “mobile innovators” flourished even as the recent recession hit and credited “communities of color” with leading the way in smartphone adoption, noting the data of the Pew Research Center on these trends. Clyburn, a former state regulator, discussed developments in the states, including a recent bill in Georgia that would make it “extremely difficult if not impossible” for a community to build its own broadband network, she said. Her home state of North Carolina already moved in that direction with a law in 2011, she said. She contrasted that bill with the broader stated mission of the government to encourage ubiquitous, affordable and high-speed service. House Bill 282 was introduced into the Georgia Legislature last Friday and proposes that any municipal networks, after July 1, “can only offer broadband service to unserved areas” unless they've already been serving census blocks prior to June 30 of this year (http://xrl.us/bogrny). It would give the Georgia Public Service Commission authority to oversee any such municipal networks, to deal with any petitions from municipalities interested in building them and to determine whether areas are unserved. Groups such as the Institute for Local Self-Reliance have asked Georgians to write to legislators objecting (http://xrl.us/bogroe). “The Kansas City examples are incredible,” Clyburn said of Google’s efforts to build gigabit-fiber in Missouri and Kansas. That project involved a company trying to work with local governments effectively and more such examples will follow, she predicted. On a national level, “the USF is how we're attempting to be smarter,” as the president advocated to the country, she said. Panelists emphasized education in furthering broadband adoption and the opportunities out there now. “Our mission is to break down the digital divide through creative and measurable ways,” said Kathryn Finney, founder of the minority-focused digitalUNdivided. CodeNow Executive Director Ryan Seashore described a major change: “I realized coding is the new literacy,” he said. His two-year-old startup focuses on teaching children how to be “builders” rather than merely consumers, he said. Education is important but organizers have to teach young people how to market and monetize the knowledge, said Marvin Dickerson, vice chairman of development for 100 Black Men of America and Dickerson Technologies CEO. He helps run weeklong camps to teach students about robotics and the fundamentals of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Politic365 editor-in-chief Krystal High described broadband as “a huge equalizing factor” in many communities and the importance of health apps: “There’s a huge economic tie to lack of adequate healthcare,” she said of their benefits to some users. “Mobile is everything to my business,” said Janine Hausif, responsible for an app that identifies black-owned businesses. Overly high wireless taxes and the need for more spectrum are key regulatory concerns, said High. Not only is broadband adoption important but a sense of broadband ownership and the need to make tech issues sexy in competing for attention with Beyoncé and Honey Boo Boo, she said: “You have to start speaking in the language that people care about.” Communities need Internet access “at their doorstep,” Dickerson said. Think of broadband as a utility, advised Finney, pointing to what she judged to be positive examples in the Kansas City area and in Chattanooga, Tenn. The world of tech and telecom needs to be fully inclusive and perhaps look to a new “evaluation matrix,” Clyburn said. Other panelists run good programs for fostering broadband adoption for young people but that’s only half the battle “if you don’t hire them,” she said of companies. She worried about the consequences of “lost opportunities” and encouraged seizing on innovation, mentioning a teen pancreatic cancer researcher who attended the State of the Union: “Are we doing all we can to be inclusive?”
The FCC’s November 2011 USF order reflected the goals in President Barack Obama’s Tuesday State of the Union address, said Commissioner Mignon Clyburn at a lunch event Wednesday in Washington. The president’s message, as Clyburn interpreted it, was “we need to do things smarter” and “more with less,” making use of coalitions, partnerships and more, she said. She framed the FCC’s actions in recent years as emblematic of this approach. At the event, hosted by Mobile Future, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and the National Association of Neighborhoods, she spoke alongside several entrepreneurs in a discussion about how to promote innovative technologies and what regulatory structures should oversee them.
The telecom industry was sharply divided on AT&T’s petition to eliminate legacy interconnection rules, as the U.S. telecom infrastructure moves toward all-Internet Protocol services. ILEC comments supported the petition, which would start with deregulatory “experiments” in various wire centers to gauge the technological and competitive effects of eliminating several ILEC obligations. Carriers and cable companies cautioned against eliminating interconnection requirements in the Telecom Act that they say protect consumers and competitors. The CLECs were split on a competing proposal by NTCA, which seeks an omnibus proceeding the association said would retain consumer-friendly regulations and incentivize IP interconnection. State associations and commissions worried about ensuring consumer protections as well as maintaining their own authority. Public interest groups were wary of AT&T’s petition, but several minority groups encouraged the idea of limited deregulatory trials to determine the effect on minority customers.
The National Broadband Map, riding on hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and a month shy of two years old, still struggles with the occasional inaccuracy, some contractors who helped assemble it told us. Many stakeholders said the process is becoming more accurate. They said accuracy will become more significant as the FCC ties large USF subsidies to the map’s data. NTIA and the FCC collaboratively run the map, which launched in February 2011 and is updated every six months, said its description (http://xrl.us/bn8xc6).
LAS VEGAS -- USTelecom President Walter McCormick said a quick tour of the massive floor at the Consumer Electronics Show will demonstrate to anyone who pays attention why the FCC should act on the group’s December petition for declaratory ruling asking the agency to determine that ILECs should no longer be considered dominant in providing switched access services. Others on a panel chaired by McCormick expressed hope that the FCC’s Technology Transitions Policy Task Force will mean the FCC becomes better able to keep up with the speed of technological change.
As 2012 draws to a close, federal agencies were preparing to dramatically reduce their expenses, a spokesman for the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said last week while lawmakers and the White House struggled to avoid a Wednesday funding sequester deadline. The Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management told federal union groups Friday that “while they are still hopeful that a deal can be reached ... they are taking prudent action so agencies can be prepared for this contingency,” said NTEU President Colleen Kelley in a statement. NTEU represents FCC and Commerce Department employees, among others. Spokespeople for OMB, FCC, FTC, NTIA, departments of Justice and Homeland Security, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and RUS did not comment.
As 2012 draws to a close, federal agencies were preparing to dramatically reduce their expenses, a spokesman for the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said last week while lawmakers and the White House struggled to avoid a Wednesday funding sequester deadline. The Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management told federal union groups Friday that “while they are still hopeful that a deal can be reached ... they are taking prudent action so agencies can be prepared for this contingency,” said NTEU President Colleen Kelley in a statement. NTEU represents FCC and Commerce Department employees, among others. Spokespeople for OMB, FCC, FTC, NTIA, departments of Justice and Homeland Security and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office did not comment.
The FCC mass-media agenda may be light in 2013, compared with work on USF and spectrum issues that will take up much of the eighth floor’s and many bureaus’ and offices’ attention, commission and industry officials predicted in interviews last week. They said Media Bureau staff may find the new year sharpens their focus on spectrum, with Chairman Julius Genachowski hoping to finish an order for the voluntary incentive auction by the end of next year. He would need rules for how to change the channels of stations that don’t agree to sell all or some of their frequencies.
Oct. 29 FCBA Intellectual Property Committee brown bag lunch on Internet Radio Fairness Act, 12:15 p.m., Wilkinson Barker, 2300 N St. NW, Suite 7 -- http://xrl.us/bimfn6