Telecommunication

[Commentary] Public street poles may not look like much, but to wireless service providers, they’re valuable real estate. Companies like Verizon want low-cost access to them to install equipment to handle the rapidly growing demand for mobile data. But poles are owned locally, and cities and counties aren’t eager to give away access at below-market rates. Doing so would essentially subsidize an already wealthy industry — nationwide, as much as $2 billion a year, money that could otherwise go to expanding low-cost broadband access. As a result, the industry is waging a war for those poles, at all levels.

Big Telecom and its allies in the White House have quietly carried out a campaign to secure rapid and cheap access to those poles, at taxpayer expense. If the industry wants the same access to taxpayer-funded infrastructure that public utilities enjoy, it should bear the concomitant responsibility to make its services available to everyone in that jurisdiction. Alternatively, if Big Telecom doesn’t want the responsibility of deploying broadband in low-income neighborhoods, then the states and the Federal Communications Commission should continue to allow cities to charge market-rate fees and leases to generate municipal dollars needed to broaden access, as San Jose is doing in several low-income neighborhoods.

[Sam Liccardo is the mayor of San Jose (CA) and a member of the Federal Communications Commission’s Broadband Development Advisory Committee.]

The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau presents this report on voice services in the schools and libraries universal service support mechanism (more commonly known as the E-rate program), as directed by the FCC in its 2014 E-rate Order. During the phasedown of voice services which began in funding year 2015, fewer applicants have applied for voice services, though most of the applicants who no longer apply for voice services continue to seek E-rate support for other services. Further, the majority of the applicants who did not receive E-rate support for any service other than voice services in funding year 2014 now receive E-rate support for services other than voice.

Mobile-only users are usually perceived as a consequence of fixed-mobile substitution. This study uses a unique dataset based on a survey in France, combined with interviewee's telecommunications billing data, to reveal heterogeneous consumer preferences for fixed services.

With the same mixed logit model we estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) for fixed communications services and fixed-mobile relationship. Results show a very large heterogeneity of WTP for fixed services among consumers. In addition, we show that fixed and mobile data are complement for all consumers. Mobile-only consumers have a much lower but non-zero WTP, and higher price sensitivity compared to fixed-mobile consumers. Consequently, an increase in the fixed offer price would reduce the demand for fixed service. Heterogeneous preferences for fixed services constitute an alternative explanation for the existence of mobile-only users, despite the complementary nature of fixed and mobile broadband. Counter-factual simulations show that the share of mobile-only could also be driven by the way to subsidize mobile handset. For instance, making the handset subsidy only available to fixed-mobile quadruple play subscribers could reduce the share of mobile-only by half.

The Federal Communications Commission reached a settlement with Sorenson Communications following a preventable service outage that affected a communications service utilized by Americans with disabilities. Under the terms of the settlement, the company has agreed to provide enhanced notices to consumers during outages, and pay $2.7 million to reimburse the Telecommunications Relay Services Fund and a $252,000 penalty.

[Commentary] The week of Oct 2, the Senate has a chance to make a profound difference for the 2.7 million children whose parents are incarcerated. Headlines covered victory after victory as the Federal Communications Commission woke from a 10-year sleep and began adopting rules to protect consumers from paying $17 for a 15-minute phone call to jail and eye-popping fees imposed on families when they deposit money to pay for calls. One federal appointee has changed all that — FCC Chairman Ajit Pai — and his confirmation vote is expected Oct 2.

Senators who believe in leaders that follow the rules, act according to their conscience, put low-income people and children first, and who protect the First Amendment above all else should vote against Chairman Pai. Speak out now and call your senator to oppose Chairman Pai’s confirmation.

[Cheryl Leanza is the policy adviser for the United Church of Christ’s Office of Communication, Inc.]

The Federal Communications Commission is proposing to modernize the way it distributes toll free numbers, including popular numbers in the new 833 toll free area code. Among the proposals is the use of a competitive auction to assign approximately 17,000 sought after numbers in the new 833 code. Another proposal would set aside toll free numbers to promote health and safety for use by non-profits and government, without cost. More broadly, the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeks comment on how to make toll free number distribution more equitable and efficient than the existing 20-year-old system. The goal: to provide the public with a better opportunity to acquire the numbers they want, to recognize the value of unique numbers, and create incentives for toll free numbers to be put to use quickly and efficiently once they are assigned.

[Commentary] The California Legislature wants to give telecom companies a nice big gift: at least $30 million a year, and perhaps billions of dollars in savings at the direct expense of cities that both rely on the money and use their current leverage to negotiate improved coverage for poor neighborhoods. Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) — or, perhaps more to the point, former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown — has to stop it.

He should veto SB 649, which gives telecoms carte blanche to put their “small cell” antennas on any public property — street lights, public buildings — with a token fee, instead of negotiating with cities for the use of taxpayer-owned facilities.

It’s an outrageous giveaway to companies whose profits are in the tens of billions. And it’s a slap in the face to California residents and taxpayers, who shouldn’t be forced to allow access to public property without just compensation. It will raise serious liability issues, but lawmakers left that up to cities to resolve, even though they took away cities’ bargaining power.

The European telecoms sector has lost €100 million a day to disruptive technology companies over the past decade, says a report commissioned by Etno, the trade body that represents the region’s largest operators.

Europe’s telecoms groups have long complained about the burden of regulation on the sector, while more lightly regulated US and Asian tech companies have launched rival services offering communications and internet access — often using the infrastructure created by the national telecoms groups. The report, compiled by Accenture, warns regulatory change is required to create a competitive digital economy in Europe.

[Commentary] At first glance, tomorrow’s Open Meeting at the Federal Communications Commission seems rather mundane — particularly after last summer’s high-profile internet freedom proceeding. But hidden among the seven items on the agenda is an intriguing proposal to reform the way the Commission allocates toll-free numbers. While the issue is not as sexy as internet freedom, the proposal is intriguing because it embraces a market-based solution to a problem that has long vexed the agency — a solution that (in another context) Nobel laureate Ronald Coase suggested almost a half-century ago.

The Commission’s decision to adopt a market solution to the similar problem of allocating toll-free numbers shows how far it has moved in Coase’s direction. While more work remains to be done, market-oriented reforms have helped make the communications marketplace industry more efficient and more innovative, which ultimately benefits the American public. The toll-free number modernization proposal is another, momentous reform in the right direction.

[Daniel Lyons is an associate professor at Boston College Law School]

Verizon has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to retire copper in eight Northeast markets (Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maryland and Delaware), marking another step in the company’s migration of its customer base to fiber-based technology. Verizon said if these are approved the switchover will take effect on or after February 28, 2018.