The Federal Communications Commission held a National Broadband Plan workshop on Wednesday to discuss, with practitioners, existing programs aimed at increasing broadband adoption and use. Relevance was the word of the day.
Greg Goldman of the Digital Impact Group summed up points he said he heard from all his fellow panelists; there seemed to be consensus that adoption programs must be:
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration transmitted its second quarterly status report to Congress this week highlighting steps being taken to implement the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program that was created as part of the economic stimulus package. The report, dated Aug. 17 but released publicly Aug 19, focuses on the release of the first notice of funds available; public outreach initiatives; preparations to accept and evaluate applications; and other steps to improve NTIA's organizational readiness. The report also covers release of a notice of funds available concerning the broadband mapping program and a subsequent clarification on requirements for address-level broadband data, average revenue per user, last-mile connection points, and broadband speeds, and took other steps to appropriately protect confidential data consistent with applicable law. Additionally, NTIA indicated that it intends to identify all broadband providers by name on the broadband map rather than leaving such identification to the discretion of the provider. NTIA's timeline for BTOP targets 1) state consultations on applications between Sept 14 and Oct 15, 2) announcement of grants in Nov, and 3) a second NOFA to be released in winter 2009.
John Horrigan, the Consumer Research Director for the Federal Communications Commission's Omnibus Broadband Initiative, moderated the August 19 National Broadband Plan workshop on the state of broadband adoption and use. The aim, he said, was to help the FCC think about who has broadband in the US and who doesn't. And, for those who do use broadband, what they are doing with it. Horrigan was joined by experts from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the Department of Agriculture, CTIA (the wireless industry's lobbying association), Verizon, the Knight Center of Digital Excellence, and the University of Illinois.
Wednesday's second National Broadband Plan workshop on adoption and use focused on ways in which broadband services can benefit consumers, particularly those in groups that historically have been less likely to adopt or utilize broadband. Brian David, the FCC's Omnibus Broadband Initiative Adoption and Usage Director, led the session which also included Jessica Zufolo, Deputy Administrator of the Rural Utilities Service at the Department of Agriculture (USDA); Dr. Francine Jefferson, Evaluation Specialist for the Technology Opportunities Program at the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration; Luke Tate, a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); and a panel of experts. FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn was also in attendance.
On August 13, 2009, the Federal Communications Commission held a National Broadband Plan workshop focused on "fixed" broadband featuring researchers, technology developers and business planners. The workshop was organized in two panel sessions. One discussed Broadband Vision and the other Fixed Broadband Technologies. Perhaps the most challenging consensus presented by the Broadband Vision panelists was that our need for broadband will continue to grow far beyond today's performance capabilities. This was responded to by panelists from the Broadband Technologies session who indicated that for cable, fiber and DSL technologies, evolution strategies were in play to meet this challenge supporting bit rates an order of magnitude higher or more than at present. Another challenging view presented was that utilization of broadband infrastructure should be maximized to ensure participation by the greatest number of innovators and that, to the fullest extent possible, the network should be transparent to the applications it supports. As noted by one researcher, such transparency would further development of applications and lower barriers to use by individuals. He also noted that as the nation becomes more dependent upon a broadband infrastructure, other factors such as reliability, security, etc. will need to be included in an evolving definition of broadband.
On August 13, 2009, the Federal Communications Commission held a National Broadband Plan workshop focused on wireless technology. The workshop was divided into two panels. The first panel discussed the status of mobile wireless and the second addressed the opportunities and challenges of serving rural users. Everyone agreed that there is a continuing growth in demand for data services and a number of solutions are being worked on by the providers to try to meet expected demands. Several wireless carriers and their providers are focusing on building out current 3G networks with HSPA technologies with plans to evolve to LTE technologies. Others are moving rapidly to deploy WiMax for fixed and mobile applications. To try to maximize frequency reuse and increase capacity, the providers are also deploying smaller cell sites (eg. micro- pico- and femto- cells are being used more commonly). However, this also requires higher capacity back haul connections. All the panelists agreed that the back-haul ("middle mile") problem needs to be addressed. The availability of fiber connections to such sites limits how quickly the networks will evolve. The service providers in rural areas face the additional issues with getting cost-effective back-haul connections. It is necessary to develop innovative technological and regulatory solutions to address this critical issue. One other fundamental issue is that of obtaining more usable spectrum to address anticipated bandwidth demands. However, panelists varied in their requests and proposals and no one identified specific spectrum requirements.
[Commentary] Large telecom carriers like Verizon, Qwest and AT&T say they are refusing to apply for broadband stimulus funds because they don't want to accept government "strings" and because they can't "compete" with government, and the national media repeats their charges verbatim. The National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA) and the Rural Utility Service (RUS) are the two federal agencies tasked with distributing $7.2 billion for projects extending broadband Internet services to areas that have been largely abandoned by the incumbent carriers. The agencies have started processing applications and expect to start doling out grants later this year. It's not surprising that the carriers would squawk about this program -- it puts their failures under a harsh spotlight -- but it's a little startling to see the media swallow their propaganda lock, stock and hogwash. And hogwash is what it is. One canard being floated is that lack of large carrier participation is proof that the broadband stimulus program is failing. That's absurd on the face of it -- thousands of vendors are competing for billions of dollars in grants to introduce broadband in areas that the large carriers haven't deigned to serve. Craig Settles, president of broadband strategy consulting firm Successful.com, wrote in an email that "Just knowing that the bigger companies weren't likely to play by itself probably encouraged a few more organizations to apply."
[Commentary] Comcast is suing over the Federal Communications Commission's ruling against their treatment of P2P traffic. This isn't surprising as there's been an argument brewing for a while that the FCC doesn't have the authority to deal with specific issues related to network management. Also, it's not like incumbent broadband providers to take any government ruling against them lying down. So in many ways it seemed inevitable that this P2P decision was going to go to court. But Members of Congress just introduced a Network Neutrality bill. Is it strange that Comcast based this lawsuit on an argument that the FCC doesn't have the authority to regulate network management techniques at basically the same time as Congress gets another opportunity to pass a law that would specifically empower the FCC with these responsibilities?
At least 49 daily newspapers, most with circulations of 100,000 or higher, have joined a new national sports content-sharing alliance that plans to begin trading stories and columns in September. Among the newspapers that have signed on to the arrangement are The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Sports content sharing is not new among newspapers in recent years. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., began this summer to use baseball game stories from the Daily News of New York, while the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Dallas Morning News have an arrangement in which one paper covers the Texas Rangers and the other covers the NHL Dallas Stars and NBA Dallas Mavericks. Tribune Co. recently began consolidating some coverage of national sports beats within its newspaper chain, particularly between the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune.
As states compete for more than $4 billion in federal "Race to the Top" stimulus grants, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has made it clear that states willing to embrace charter schools and other favored innovations will get preference. That, in turn, could prompt a rise in the number of virtual charter schools and other charters that open across the country. Eleven states have said no to charter schools so far, though some of these states operate state-run virtual schools. They soon might pay a penalty for their choice.
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