Sparks Fly at FCC Broadband Measurement Meeting

For a month characterized by smoothness, the meeting was described by some ISP representatives as tense, as Measurement Lab representatives and the FCC butted heads over proposed disclaimer language, openness and the most “collegial” way to deliver information to the group. M-Lab’s Meredith Whittaker, of Google, sat on the opposite side of the room from FCC officials and engaged in a spirited debate while ISP representatives’ heads turned to and fro like spectators at a tennis match. NCTA also expressed frustration that FCC plaudits about companies’ “impressive” broadband deployment conflicted with what was said in the recent Section 706 report. It found that broadband deployment was not reasonable or timely.

Even after two years together, the group is still discussing proper methods of openness and sharing information. About a half hour before the 1:30 p.m. meeting, Whittaker emailed Johnston with proposed disclaimer language and a detailed analysis of the problem in March. “Based on this analysis, we have drafted the below disclaimer language, which is specific and verifiable,” said the e-mail, which Whittaker forwarded to us. The analysis, drafted by the Open Technology Institute at New America Foundation, and Steve Bauer from MIT, discussed the March incident, the percentage of tests affected, and how long it took to restore the affected servers. Based on the findings, M-Lab drafted detailed disclaimer text, which most of the group -- including Johnston -- had not yet seen.

Jeb Benedict, CenturyLink assistant vice president, said it generally would be helpful to have an opportunity to see and hear, rather than be told about, things that were shared with the FCC. Whitaker said the analysis was “just completed last night. … If this is a question of openness, the analysis includes a six-page report which catalogs the conclusions as well as the analytics scripts, so everything there is open and can be replicated with access to SamKnows.” From there the discussion grew more heated.

Benedict: “My observation is just, we see information or comment or ex parte just delivered, that’s not discussed here, and there doesn’t seem to be much interaction with this group. That’s the observation I wanted to share with you.” Whittaker: “Well, we'll keep that in mind. I'm not sure I understand exactly what the—.” Benedict interrupted: “All right, let me be more blunt: You seem to be dictating, rather than sharing. ‘Here’s what we say,’ rather than ‘Here’s what we propose, what do you think?'” Whittaker replied: “Well, the language that we process as conducted out of MIT is dictating an interpretation of the facts that can be vetted by people here. I'm not sure—” Benedict: “Um, also, you can stop name-dropping MIT and Princeton while I'm at it.” Whittaker: “I will stop name-dropping MIT and Princeton.” Johnston: “Let’s dial it down a notch."

There is some uncertainty over the future of the measurement program, as although the present commission is interested in continuing this program, that could change depending on the results of the election, FCC officials said. Johnston stated his “personal” opinion -- “not official company dogma” -- that “doing this every six months is doing this too frequently.” Ultimately, Johnston wants to get to a point in the industry where this sort of service-level testing across the network, or to a content delivery network point, can be done as a standard process and at scale.

Johnston also wants to understand how product delivery is evolving, he said. The industry has reached a point where “the product you're delivering outstrips the availability of many homes to absorb it,” he said. Google’s fiber project in Kansas City sends enough data to homes that they can’t effectively utilize it “unless they have 400 people in it,” he said. Johnston is interested in taking a closer look inside the home environment, more thoroughly understanding content delivery networks, and moving beyond access service provider networks into “other points in the Internet ecosystem that determine customer service,” he said.

Johnston repeated previous FCC findings that ISPs have made “very impressive” progress on broadband deployment in the past year. “Not impressive enough to say it’s ‘reasonable and timely,'” said NCTA Vice President Steve Morris. He was referencing last month’s Section 706 report, in which a divided commission found that broadband “is not yet being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion” (CD Aug 22 p1).

Officials also discussed the difficulties in testing fixed wireless ISPs. The commission has had “a lot of discussions internally” about how to measure WISPs, but they are very unique companies and it’s hard to measure them in a statistically valid manner, Johnston said. The commission approached Clearwire, but “they're in a state of flux right now,” he said. Johnston said the first time the FCC spoke to Clearwire, the WISP didn’t want to be seen as a fixed wireless company, and said it was going to mobile. But “that seems to have fallen apart,” he said. The rest of the WISPs are very small, which could make any measurements a “case study” rather than a test with a sufficient sample set, he said.

The commission’s one-year contract with the U.K. measurement company SamKnows will expire at the end of the year, but the commission has a renewable option for 2013, FCC officials said. There has been strong support from various voices within the commission to renew, but no formal decisions have been made yet, they said. The commission plans to have a new competitive bidding process in Q1. As the agency moves into wireless broadband testing, it plans to keep using the M-Lab platform, Johnston said. “We're looking forward to it,” said Whittaker.