NARUC Urges State Interconnection Oversight of New Voice Technologies

The Telecom Committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners adopted a resolution urging policymakers to consider uses of broadband technologies to reduce greenhouse gases and improve energy efficiency.

The interconnection resolution sparked controversy Monday due to concerns among incumbent telcos and some commissioners that its language could be read as advocating state oversight of Internet interconnections now handled entirely through private negotiations. Two amendments were added to make clear that the resolution’s effect is limited to telecom carriers holding state or federal certificates granting operating authority for voice services, and that the resolution doesn’t affect regulatory classification of telecom providers or proposals to change provider classifications.

But some commissioners objected that the revised language could be read as support for freeing VoIP providers from any obligation to interconnect. District of Columbia Commissioner Betty Kane, resolution sponsor, said the question of whether VoIP is telecom “is beyond the scope of this resolution.” And California Commissioner Rachelle Chong said voice providers who aren’t telecom carriers under the Telecom Act still have market incentives to interconnect and can do so via commercial negotiation, but without recourse to binding state arbitration on which telecom carriers can rely.

The final resolution, passed with two “no” votes, said state commissions should be allowed to continue their active role in preserving telecom carriers’ interconnection rights and traffic exchange obligations for voice services under sections 251 and 252 in a technologically neutral manner, regardless of technological developments.

The NARUC telecom panel unanimously adopted a resolution saying broadband telecom service could be key to federal climate policy. The resolution backs incorporating broadband technologies into national policies for addressing climate change, energy supply and other environmental concerns.

NARUC Notebook

Speakers at a Monday NARUC wireless broadband panel saw different roles for wireless broadband service. Ali Tabassi, technology vice president for Sprint/Nextel’s Xohm unit, said Wi-Max offers an unbeatable combination of low cost, fast construction and high bandwidth to bring “true broadband capability” to entire cities at once. Xohm service will launch in Baltimore in September, he said, then this fall in Washington, D.C., and Chicago. He said Wi-Max devices are becoming widely and affordably available. But Geoff Daily, editor of AT&T-sponsored telecom blog app-rising.com, said wireless broadband has inherent limitations keeping it from displacing fiber-based landline broadband. He said speed depends on the number of simultaneous users, and connectivity is affected by distance and even weather conditions. There’s not enough spectrum to accommodate bandwidth-intensive uses like high-definition video, he said. These limits mean wireless broadband “is a supplement to landline broadband, not a competitor to it,” he said. He acknowledged that wireless broadband can compete with landline in high-cost rural areas, but even wireless broadband will require government subsidies to get rural America online. Daily said the ultimate goal is to have fiber and wireless broadband universally available. Jim Stegeman, president of CostQuest Associates, said his company’s studies show it would require about $22 billion to provide ubiquitous third-generation wireless broadband service. He said about 2.5 million miles of U.S. roadways (42 percent) lack third-generation mobile access. He said universal 3G broadband would entail upgrading 55,000 wireless towers and building 16,000 new ones. New construction would mainly be in sparsely populated western states. He said 39 states have some sort of broadband initiative, but most are only barely beginning to look at the costs of expanding broadband into unserved areas and how to meet those costs.

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NARUC speakers addressing broadband mapping issues Monday said mapping can provide policymakers and the private sector with valuable information if done right. They noted that Congress is considering funding statewide broadband mapping, but states need to consider what they want their maps to include. Commissioner Rachelle Chong of California said her agency learned “a great deal” from the state’s two mapping projects, one ordered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the other by a state video franchising law. She said the maps allowed policymakers to peg unserved and underserved areas needing attention in broadband policies and get hard data useful in developing public-private partnerships for projects. She said the map data could be broken out by county, census tract, income, number of providers or penetration rates. Charles Pittman, senior telecom director for North Carolina’s e-NC Authority, said mapping was vital to fulfilling the agency mission of ensuring statewide high- speed Internet access. “You need to know where policies need to be targeted before deciding what policies are needed,” he said. He said the maps can help consumers seeking broadband service, but also can paint misleading pictures. He said the level of detail in data is a major consideration because penetration data based on counties or wire centers may conceal hot spots badly needing attention. Another problem is outdated information from companies and other sources. “No one source will give you the whole story,” he cautioned. He said federal mapping legislation should set realistic standards for providers, and require states to use a consistent format allowing state-to-state or region-to-region comparisons. Mark Guttman, marketing vice president for CostQuest Associates, said mapping projects can hit trouble when defining broadband, trying to protect confidential data and even on matters of homeland security. Projects need to be able to present data in a varied ways, he said. “You will have multiple audiences who will want multiple formats to address their specific questions,” he said.

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NARUC filled open positions on the Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Services. Commissioner Larry Landis of Indiana will be the conference’s state chairman. He will be joined by Commissioner Rochelle Chong of California and Commissioner Randy Mitchell of South Carolina. The conference, consisting of FCC Commissioner Deborah Tate and seven state regulators, provides a forum for discussing inter- and intrastate issues affecting advanced broadband service deployment.