FCC Agenda Meeting Notebook...

August 7, 2003 |Miscellaneous

The FCC’s Wireline Bureau told the Commission at its agenda meeting Wed. that broadband subscribership was growing in rural as well as urban areas, but Comrs. Copps and Adelstein questioned the timing of the report and the quality of the data. The bureau submitted a report showing the percent of occupied housing units with high-speed lines in service grew nationwide to 16% in Dec. 2002, from 2% in Dec. 1999. On a state-by-state basis, rural areas also were gaining more broadband subscribers, for example growing in S.D. to 6% of housing units in Dec. 2002 from less than 0.5% in Dec. 1999, in Ark. to 9% from 1%. Among more urban states, the N.Y. percent of high speed lines increased to 25% from 2% and Mass. to 24% from 4%. The bureau said the percentages were estimates. Other data it reported: (1) The number of high-speed lines connecting homes and businesses to the Internet at the end of 2002 was nearly 20 million, vs. 2.8 million at the end of 1999. (2) In Dec. 1999, 60% of the nation’s zip codes had at least one service provider with at least one subscriber to its high-speed service, 10% had at least 4 providers and only 1% had 7 providers. By the end of 2002, the comparable figures were 88%, 39% and 17%. The report defined high-speed lines as those that provided services at speeds exceeding 200 kbps in at least one direction. Copps said the report “seems like good news” because progress was being made in the number of people with high-speed access. However, he questioned the survey’s methodology in 2 areas: (1) The use of “skeletal zip code data” to measure use of high-speed services because “finding one high-speed subscriber in a zip code and counting it as service available throughout is not a credible way to proceed.” (2) “Basing our measurements and our objectives on a broadband revolution at 200 kilobits may be just a little passe.” He said it might be time to use “a more rigorous bandwidth standard.” Copps said the Commission wasn’t conducting the congressionally mandated Sec. 706 broadband surveys frequently enough: “When the Commission undertook its first Sec. 706 inquiry, it stated that the agency would inquire annually into the deployment of broadband. Yet it has been a full 2 years since the Commission released its last notice of inquiry.” Adelstein said the report was “a good effort but we must do more.” It has been 2 years since the Commission began its last inquiry and 19 months since it issued its last report, he said. A bureau spokesman said the Commission planned to release a notice of inquiry this fall. -- EH

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The FCC voted Wed. to allow “open-entry, facilities- based competition” in the Alaskan bush for interstate, interexchange toll telephone service. The vote ended the Commission’s longstanding Alaska Bush Earth Station Policy that had prohibited the installation of more than one satellite earth station in Alaskan bush communities. Although the policy originally was designed to avoid price increases to customers, Asst. Satellite Div. Chief JoAnn Lucanik said experimental trials conducted since 1996 by General Communications Inc. (GCI) had shown that more than one earth station per community presented a “clear benefit” to the public: “During that period, new satellite technologies were introduced that greatly improved the quality of voice service and fax transmissions, enabled data transmission for the first time, increased reliability of public safety and emergency calls and… provided capacity for telemedicine, Internet services and connections to schools and libraries.” In stating his support for the elimination of the policy, Comr. Copps said changing it was only one of the initiatives the Commission needed to take on communications challenges in the state. Comr. Martin said the Commission should consider acting soon on a related petition by Alascom (WC 03-18). The petition, submitted in Jan., requested a waiver of the requirement that the company provide an annual rate revision for its Common Carrier Services tariff, saying any revisions would be “infeasible… because of substantially changed legal and factual circumstances, an outdated model and lack of data necessary to run the [cost allocation plan (CAP)] model.” Alascom asked the Commission to leave the current rates in effect until a rational CAP model had been created and approved or until the FCC deregulated telephone service in Alaska. -- JT

FCC Wireless Bureau Chief John Muleta said at the agency’s agenda meeting Wed. that his bureau was studying new regulatory policy areas for rural spectrum use. In Dec., the Commission opened several inquiries on wireless policy, including whether existing spectrum policies impeded provision of wireless service to rural areas. “We in the bureau have taken to heart the Spectrum Policy Task Force’s ideas and recommendations and hope to present you in the coming months items that will bring about the possibility of greater access to spectrum and related services to rural communities,” Muleta said. “The bureau hopes to do this by providing rural entrepreneurs and rural communities greater flexibility both in the use and financing of spectrum.” He said such steps also would build on the efforts established in last year’s inquiry. Muleta said the FCC and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) had started an initiative last month on wireless service in rural areas, examining how to harmonize rules and regulations between the RUS and the FCC on the licensing and financing of wireless services. Muleta said the project also was studying how to coordinate outreach activities between the agencies on the benefits of wireless services in rural areas. Comr. Adelstein said he was pleased with the efforts of the Wireless Bureau and others to work with the RUS on outreach initiative. He said that as a Senate staffer he had worked on legislation authorizing and providing funds to the RUS for deployment of broadband services in rural areas in last year’s farm bill. “It is so worthwhile to explore the wireless applications of this legislation, as I truly believe that spectrum-based services offer great potential to rural America,” he said.

The FCC’s Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB) said Wed. it had begun a 16-month program to inform consumers in 3 regions -- tribal lands, Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta -- about the policies, rules and federal programs available to improve access to telecom services. The goal is to “inform these historically underserved portions of the country of the wide variety of programs and services available” and to establish “long-term partnerships with community leaders and consumers in these regions,” Bureau Chief Dane Snowden said. The bureau said it would: (1) Increase awareness of the federal Universal Service Lifeline program and Link-Up. It planned to deliver educational materials about those programs to community centers, health care providers, state and local public welfare offices and other outlets “to ensure that eligible consumers are aware of these programs and have the opportunity to subscribe to them.” (2) Expand the scope of the outreach by including other universal service programs, participation in regional workshops, conferences and events focusing on telecom issues in those regions. The Bureau also said FCC staff would visit Alaska soon to engage natives on the impediments to telecom subscribership and deployment experience there. As part of the initiative, the Bureau said it would restructure the Commission’s rural Web page (www.fcc.gov/cgb/rural/) to provide easier access to information about the FCC’s activities affecting rural America. FCC Comr. Adelstein applauded the CGB initiative: “We must unite together to deliver for rural America solutions that work for consumers in the marketplace.” He said Congress “intended all Americans to have access to telecommunications services, and eventually advanced services, at reasonable and affordable rates. It gave the Commission the tools to attain these critical, yet attainable, goals through universal service, competition and subsequent deregulation.”