IP Transition, Rural Broadband Experiments Will Provide Valuable Lessons, Sallet Says
Retiring the copper networks still used by millions of Americans will remove choice from the market, FCC acting General Counsel Jon Sallet said at a Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy event Wednesday. That’s why it’s so important to “learn” by having IP transition trials “before legal and policy decisions are made,” Sallet said. The agency has received two service experiments and nearly 1,000 expressions of interest in rural broadband experiments, he said, and the experiments will “enhance the ability of the commission, network providers, consumers, competitors and the public to monitor and measure the impact of change."
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The rural broadband experiments are intended to “demonstrate best practices” in the construction and deployment of rural broadband networks, Sallet said. The total amount of money requested by rural entities enters the several-billion-dollar range -- far higher than the $50 million-$100 million contemplated in the IP transition order (CD March 12 p21). Given that only a “relatively small amount” of money is available, Sallet said the experiments will be important not only for “what is achieved but what is learned by others.” Responding to our question about how best to dole out the limited funds, Sallet said it would “interesting to know” what might be “ways of proceeding that we might not have expected” in areas where there is not broadband now. Carefully disbursing money in that way “might have the benefit of not only deploying broadband to an area but teaching others how broadband can be deployed,” he said.
Of NTCA’s 900 rural telco members, perhaps a third have submitted expressions of interests, said Michael Romano, senior vice president-policy. NTCA is still formulating an official position on what the FCC’s criteria should be for scoring proposals, he told us. Companies should score highly if they have a “track record” of operating in an area, Romano said. NTCA has also urged its members “strongly” to consider partnering with electric cooperatives. “There may be a natural partnership that could be achieved” by an electric partnering with a telco, said Romano. “There’s a great synergy there.” Several electric utilities have submitted expressions of interest to the FCC, and have indicated their willingness to become eligible telecom carriers if selected for programs (CD March 7 p2).
Utilities Telecom Council members are very interested in getting involved and have submitted more than 100 expressions of interest, Eric Wagner, Utilities Telecom Council industry affairs manager, told Sallet at the event. Wagner asked Sallet how utilities might become “instrumental” in providing broadband to unserved and underserved areas. “If we knew the answer to your question precisely, we wouldn’t be having experiments,” Sallet responded. Pilot projects will hopefully “teach us” the best way in which utilities or existing rural telcos can contribute, Sallet said.
It’s important for the FCC to focus on sustainability, Romano told us. “Realistically, who has the best chance of delivering -- on a sustainable basis -- broadband in hard-to-serve high-cost areas?” he asked. Romano focuses on sustainability, because “that to me is what universal service at least used to be all about.” It seems like there’s a lot of focus on a one-time infusion of cash, but universal service is about ensuring that people have “ongoing access to reasonably comparable service at reasonable rates,” he said. “It’s not about getting people connected, it’s about keeping people connected."
"Technology is transient, and should be; values are enduring, and must be,” Sallet said. He reiterated the values first articulated by Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and later embraced by Chairman Tom Wheeler and the commission, focusing on the importance of protecting public safety, universal accessibility, competition and consumer protection. Those “should be the enduring values that guide us as we apply the Act to modern communications networks,” Sallet said. He emphasized the need to protect “not competitors, but competition.”
Sallet defended the FCC’s role in transactions that involve the transfer of FCC licenses. The agency can move “in harmony with antitrust agencies,” while also bringing its own expertise to the table, Sallet said. The agency’s competitive analysis under the public interest standard is “broader” than Department of Justice review, which is limited “solely to an examination of the competitive effects of the acquisition, without reference to diversity, localism or other public interest considerations,” he said. The FCC might have developed a “reputation” that “the answer is always yes,” but “Chairman Wheeler is very clear” that transaction reviews under his tenure will be rigorous, fact-based and thorough, Sallet said.