International comparisons are important to the FCC’s development of an effective national broadband strategy, but the commission can’t rely on them alone, panelists said Tuesday at an FCC broadband workshop, about lessons from abroad. “No single equation or set of equations will replace reasoned, well-informed judgment,” said Yochai Benkler, a co- director of Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
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.
Video providers are covered in a draft FCC notice of inquiry on truth in billing, commission officials told us Friday. The notice asks about extending existing wireline and wireless rules to broadband and video providers and about expanding the rules’ scope, they said. The FCC will vote on the notice at its Aug. 27 meeting. Few companies have been meeting with the commission about the item, which states no tentative conclusions (CD Aug 13 p4).
The FCC broadband team assigned “homework” to groups participating in the development of the agency’s national broadband plan. At a broadband workshop Thursday about fixed broadband, FCC moderators urged “rigorous” input on appropriate minimums for speed, latency, jitter and other broadband attributes. “We need to come up with a very real definition of broadband,” said Stagg Newman, the team’s lead technologist.
Raising the initial cash to build out broadband is the biggest barrier to rural deployment, said industry executives and others at an FCC broadband workshop on wireline deployment. Spurring more adoption is also key to making a business case for broadband, they said. “You have to think about the return on investment of capital for the players, because at the end of the day, unless they are earning an acceptable return on capital, then what we're doing as a country is not viable,” said Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett.
An intercarrier compensation overhaul would prevent disputes regarding access fees charged for VoIP traffic, said AT&T and other wireline carriers in comments filed Wednesday at the FCC. AT&T urged the FCC to reject a petition by Texas competitive local exchange carrier UTex asking the FCC to arbitrate a dispute with AT&T over $7.5 million in access fees charged by AT&T for VoIP traffic terminating on the public switched telephone network (CD July 29 p8). The dispute isn’t the right context to make rules, but FCC guidance on the switched-IP access charge issue is needed, the carrier said.
Reform of the FCC should include more focus on issues important to deaf individuals, said executives from consumer groups and telecom relay service providers. It’s unclear how FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski views TRS issues, because he’s said little about them in public. But some matters, like the November transition to 10-digit phone numbers for Internet-based TRS, could demand significant FCC attention in the next few months.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski urged staff to collaborate and not be afraid to make mistakes as they get to work on the national broadband plan. He held an all-hands meeting Wednesday to introduce new staffers on the broadband team (CD Aug 5 p12) and kick off broadband workshops starting Thursday. “From this point forward, there really is no letting up,” he said.
Midsized and competitive wireline companies, in comments filed Monday, resisted broadening the number ports covered by a time limit of one business day. Big voice providers asked the FCC to apply the newly shortened deadline in additional situations. And MetroPCS called a day too long. In May, the FCC shortened to one business day the interval for “simple” wireline and intermodal number ports (CD May 15 p4). The commission also opened a rulemaking asking about ways to improve the requirement, including whether it should apply to more than simple ports.
Broadband providers played tug-of-war with states and public interest groups in comments last week on how the FCC should release combined broadband data based on Form 477 submissions while maintaining confidentiality. Companies asked the commission to protect their deployment and speed information strongly. But others asked the FCC to share as much information as possible with the state bodies and others involved in broadband mapping eligible to see it. The Broadband Data Improvement Act requires the commission to provide aggregated data by census tract.
A proposed government initiative to widely deploy HD voice technology would be a boon to device manufacturers, said analysts and industry executives in interviews. But while Web-based VoIP providers and big network operators are eying HD voice, some smaller service providers doubt the unproven technology is worth the effort. And Washington may have other priorities.