CHICAGO - Network neutrality rules could slow or “halt” progress toward a fully connected world, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg said in a keynote speech Wednesday at Supercomm. “While this future is imminent, it is not inevitable, and the decisions we make today - as an industry and as a country - will determine whether the benefits of these transformational networks will be felt sooner or much, much later.”
FCC and Hill policymakers should consider the role private investment plays in broadband penetration as work goes forward on a national plan, analysts said at an American Consumer Institute (ACI) seminar Tuesday. The plan needs to weigh how public policy goals of increasing broadband speed and access are tied to industry’s financial underpinnings, said panelists. “Much of the debate at the FCC so far has been very general … there have been no big ideas,” said Larry Darby of ACI, a non-profit that supports research into market solutions when analyzing consumer issues.
Oversight hearings on the broadband stimulus program and the Genachowski FCC are the first order of business in the House Communications Subcommittee as Congress returns. Other matters will have a tough time getting on the agenda as lawmakers resume work on health care and climate change legislation. Few expect major telecom enactments this year, other than must-pass satellite reauthorization legislation and possibly a cybersecurity bill, according to lobbyists, trade associations and Hill sources.
Affordability, PC ownership issues and lack of broadband content are barriers for broadband adoption among low-income families, children and others, panelists said at the FCC Broadband Workshop late Wednesday.
Eliminating telephone excise and Universal Service Fund taxes are options that the Congressional Budget Office suggests lawmakers consider as they works on future federal budgets, a new report said. The options are two of 188 in a report sent to the House and Senate Budget Committees last week to help Congress set priorities in its annual budgets, said CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf. The ideas in the report aren’t recommendations and they aren’t given in order of priority, he said in the report’s preface.
The FCC aims to open soon a proceeding that will “closely examine” wireless handset exclusives, acting Chairman Michael Copps said Thursday. In a keynote speech at the Pike & Fischer Broadband Summit, he also called for an overhaul of the Universal Service Fund and reflected on the agency’s development of a national broadband plan.
Companies and interest groups are rethinking their FCC lobbying strategies as the likelihood seems to grow that Michael Copps will remain the acting chairman well into the summer. Industry sources said Wednesday they're still looking for issues that could be addressed before Julius Genachowski’s nomination to become the chairman clears the Senate.
The FCC will likely get lengthy input on a vast array of controversial telecom issues, as it attempts to develop a national broadband plan, said industry officials we polled for reaction Thursday. In a 52-page notice of inquiry released Wednesday (CD April 9 p1), the FCC asks questions on universal service reform, open networks and nondiscrimination, the role of competition, how to define broadband, and several other big issues. The FCC is required under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to deliver its national broadband plan to Congress by Feb. 17.
Congress should make cybersecurity, not net neutrality, its main communications priority in the year ahead, James Cicconi, AT&T senior executive vice president, told reporters. He said he expects quick action from the FCC and Congress on a Universal Service Fund overhaul because of growing recognition that the current system is broken. And he endorsed Verizon’s position that the 700 MHz D-block should be given to public-safety agencies for immediate use rather than go through a second auction.
There appeared to be little new in the more than 100 comments that flooded into the FCC this week about how to develop a comprehensive broadband strategy for rural parts of the U.S. The recommendations of the commission are expected to be given weight at NTIA and RUS as the agencies develop their respective broadband stimulus programs.