‘All-Broadband World’ Is Coming, NARUC Panelists Predict
PORTLAND, Ore. -- “We need more spectrum, I can’t say it enough times,” said AT&T’s Joel Lubin, vice president-public policy, during a panel about the 2020 vision of telecom at NARUC’s midyear meeting. He said “legacy systems are broken” and an “all-broadband world” is on the horizon. Lubin said that over the last dozen years, switched-access line counts have declined enormously as housing units grew. The infrastructure should transition to all IP, he said. The FCC is on the right track with the Transformation Order and its conclusion that “consumers want advanced mobility,” but more needs to be done, he said.
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Wireless spectrum reform will dominate the next several years, predicted Google policy counsel Patrick Ryan. “It’s time for a constitutional moment with wireless spectrum,” he said. “That’s the number-one thing we need to think about if we're really going to focus on the future.” He also stressed the importance of fiber to building out the new networks that will define the next decade. Home Telephone Co. Vice President Keith Oliver concurred that laying out fiber will be a crucial next step, as did Rural Utilities Service Administrator Jonathan Adelstein. The future will include more telecommuting and “you'll be seamlessly integrated,” Adelstein said.
The brave new telecom world will hold challenges for state commissions, however, panelists said. “Here’s the point -- you can’t have mandates,” Lubin said. “You can’t mandate what we just discussed. What you need to do is create a logical framework that creates the right incentives.” He said he wants to ensure “the process doesn’t impede the innovation.” The process currently integrates state and federal government in a complicated regulatory process but the AT&T vice president sees trouble if regulation goes too far. “I cannot fathom having 51 different definitions of what service quality is,” Lubin said. “51 implementations” would be “equally vexing were the FCC to define service quality,” he added, saying the process should be streamlined -- “simple, simple, simple,” in his words -- for the benefit of the customer. “I can’t figure out how to problem-solve that."
Other panelists spoke in favor of certain consumer protections. “I don’t think we can step away from the concept of the carrier of last resort,” Adelstein said. Massachusetts Commissioner Geoffrey Why said he failed to see the notion of 51 definitions or interpretations as a serious problem. “I think those things can get worked out,” the commissioner said. “They have in the past.” The commissioners’ biggest problem is “lack of clarity” from the FCC about what their role should be, he said: “It makes it difficult sometimes for us to act. What we all are hoping for -- and I speak for many of my fellow commissioners -- is that we want clarity. … It’s not fair right now."
"Where there is a market failure, you need to have an explicit fund,” Lubin replied to panelists who mentioned carrier of last resort and questioned his strong words against mandates. “But you can’t mandate someone to take that obligation. … You should not be required and forced to take that obligation."
Why defended the consumer protections that state commissions typically watch for, such as E911 and proper buildout, as well as the digital divide of broadband adoption and how to serve low-income individuals and underserved areas. Reliability is what matters to consumers, he said. “We're talking about the future, but we're really talking about communications,” Why said. “Communications is communications.” Consumers expect the Massachusetts commission to answer calls and emails about their service problems because that’s what they care about, he said.