DENVER -- Judges seemed generally receptive Tuesday to FCC arguments that the agency acted reasonably when it implemented its landmark 2011 Connect America Fund order. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel spent several hours hearing challenges to the order, which rewrote the $4.5 billion USF and set intercarrier compensation on a path toward bill and keep. As judges told challengers that ambiguous terms in the Telecom Act should be resolved in favor of reasonable FCC interpretation, challengers responded either that the terms weren’t ambiguous or the interpretation wasn’t reasonable.

"There can be no question” about the importance of the Universal Service Fund and promoting broadband deployment in rural America, but doing so won’t be easy, said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Thursday. FCC commissioners got a brief status update on its moves to reform the USF during the meeting. The presentation went over in some detail recent history of USF reform, including progress on Phase II of the Connect America Fund. Other commission members indicated they had concerns that parts of the program limit full use of the program by carriers. Staff last gave an update at the FCC’s June meeting.

There is broad support for expanding the E-rate program to cover wireless devices, Qualcomm said in reply comments filed at the FCC. “No less than fifty-five commenters -- from school teachers and administrators, to educational content providers, technology developers, and service providers to prominent professors of education technology at America’s leading universities -- are urging the Commission to change the E-rate program to enable schools to use these funds for anywhere/anytime wireless connectivity so all American students can continue their learning outside of school, after hours and on weekends, no matter their income level,” Qualcomm said (http://bit.ly/1j2eGFw). PCIA agreed, saying the school of the future will be built around mobile devices. “Static, paper-based textbooks will be replaced by adaptive digital curriculum, capable of monitoring student engagement and assisting teachers in assessing ‘individual student needs in real-time,'” PCIA said (http://bit.ly/1a1AZdh). “Equipped with Internet enabled mobile devices, students will research, communicate, and collaborate in dynamic fashion.” Mobile broadband “sometimes is the only option for obtaining reliable, high-speed broadband service, especially in rural and remote areas where fixed broadband networks are not available,” T-Mobile said in its reply comments (http://bit.ly/1dmpXiC). In addition, “as educators stress, the new digital learning environment requires always-on, anytime, anywhere access for students and teachers,” T-Mobile said.

There is broad support for expanding the E-rate program to cover wireless devices, Qualcomm said in reply comments filed at the FCC. “No less than fifty-five commenters -- from school teachers and administrators, to educational content providers, technology developers, and service providers to prominent professors of education technology at America’s leading universities -- are urging the Commission to change the E-rate program to enable schools to use these funds for anywhere/anytime wireless connectivity so all American students can continue their learning outside of school, after hours and on weekends, no matter their income level,” Qualcomm said (http://bit.ly/1j2eGFw). PCIA agreed, saying the school of the future will be built around mobile devices. “Static, paper-based textbooks will be replaced by adaptive digital curriculum, capable of monitoring student engagement and assisting teachers in assessing ‘individual student needs in real-time,'” PCIA said (http://bit.ly/1a1AZdh). “Equipped with Internet enabled mobile devices, students will research, communicate, and collaborate in dynamic fashion.” Mobile broadband “sometimes is the only option for obtaining reliable, high-speed broadband service, especially in rural and remote areas where fixed broadband networks are not available,” T-Mobile said in its reply comments (http://bit.ly/1dmpXiC). In addition, “as educators stress, the new digital learning environment requires always-on, anytime, anywhere access for students and teachers,” T-Mobile said.

There is broad support for expanding the E-rate program to cover wireless devices, Qualcomm said in reply comments filed at the FCC. “No less than fifty-five commenters -- from school teachers and administrators, to educational content providers, technology developers, and service providers to prominent professors of education technology at America’s leading universities -- are urging the Commission to change the E-rate program to enable schools to use these funds for anywhere/anytime wireless connectivity so all American students can continue their learning outside of school, after hours and on weekends, no matter their income level,” Qualcomm said (http://bit.ly/1j2eGFw). PCIA agreed, saying the school of the future will be built around mobile devices. “Static, paper-based textbooks will be replaced by adaptive digital curriculum, capable of monitoring student engagement and assisting teachers in assessing ‘individual student needs in real-time,'” PCIA said (http://bit.ly/1a1AZdh). “Equipped with Internet enabled mobile devices, students will research, communicate, and collaborate in dynamic fashion.” Mobile broadband “sometimes is the only option for obtaining reliable, high-speed broadband service, especially in rural and remote areas where fixed broadband networks are not available,” T-Mobile said in its reply comments (http://bit.ly/1dmpXiC). In addition, “as educators stress, the new digital learning environment requires always-on, anytime, anywhere access for students and teachers,” T-Mobile said.

The FCC should refrain from setting one-size-fits-all requirements for the E-rate program, and use its limited E-rate funds responsibly instead of simply aiming to double the fund’s size, parties said in reply comments.

TracFone Wireless worries Congress may kill the Lifeline program, a major source of TracFone success in recent years. The América Móvil subsidiary is the U.S.’s largest wireless Lifeline provider, with 3.6 million subscribers in 39 states. It has lobbied Congress and carried out a public information campaign for months now, its chief Washington lobbyist told us. Lifeline, funded by the FCC’s universal service fund and costing $2.2 billion in 2012, is intended to help low-income Americans with $9.25 per month in either wireless or wireline discounts and, in the case of wireless carriers, free cellphones. TracFone wants to head off any legislation that may end Lifeline and instead prompt its own further overhaul of the program, eyeing mid-2014 as ripe legislation time.

Adak Eagle Enterprises and subsidiary Windy City Cellular, which have pleaded with the FCC to reconsider the Wireline and Wireless bureaus’ denial of their waiver petition (CD Oct 25 p7), asked Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to pay close heed to ex parte filings in support of their request. In a letter sent Wednesday, AEE and WCC said they were “encouraged” by Rosenworcel’s remarks at the Federal Communications Bar Association luncheon, in which she emphasized the importance of public safety and need for universal service (CD Oct 30 p10). The Marine Exchange of Alaska discussed how essential the carriers’ services are for public safety, AEE and WCC said. The carriers also cited the comments of the Minority Media and Telecom Council, which warned that minorities will be hurt if the denial stands. “AEE and WCC recognize that you were not responsible for the 84 percent overnight flash-cut in WCC’s funding and the rapid phasedown of AEE’s funding which took effect in early 2012, and which have destabilized and nearly destroyed the companies,” the carriers told Rosenworcel. “Nor were you responsible for the costly and overly complicated waiver process that has continued for over a year and a half, and has left both companies on the brink of bankruptcy,” they said. “Based on your recent remarks on the importance of public safety and universal service for all Americans, the companies are hopeful that you will take the opportunity to correct the Commission’s course."

Researchers at the University of Cambridge Computer Lab are trying a new Internet architecture they say will replace today’s system with a model similar to peer-to-peer file-sharing “but on a massive scale,” the university said Wednesday. The prototype, developed as part of an EU-funded project called “Pursuit,” will overhaul the existing structure of the Net’s Internet Protocol (IP) layer, through which isolated networks are connected, it said. That could enable “a more socially-minded and intelligent system” that lets users obtain information without needing direct access to servers where content is initially stored, it said, and could make the Internet faster, more efficient and more able to withstand rapidly escalating levels of global user demand. The new architecture has implications for net neutrality, said Dirk Trossen, senior researcher at the Computer Lab and Pursuit’s technical manager, in an interview. In addition, because it will likely replace the Internet Protocol, it will do away with the need for IPv4 or IPv6 addresses, he said. On today’s Internet, communications are directed to a particular IP address atop which various activities and applications ride, Trossen said. Pursuit focuses on the “stuff” users want to have or do, which would have labels much like IP addresses, he said. Someone who wants to view a particular video, for example, would ask the network to find the video, not to take her to a specific location, he said. Someone seeking a video on YouTube doesn’t care if it comes from a company server in Oregon or from the laptop of someone in the next room who’s watching it, he said. Individual computers would be able to copy and republish content on receipt, providing other users with the option to access data, or fragments of data, from a range of locations rather than the source itself, the university said. “Essentially, the model would enable all online content to be shared in a manner emulating the ‘peer-to-peer’ approach taken by some file-sharing sites, but on an unprecedented, internet-wide scale,” it said in a news release. This would be similar to BitTorrent in how applications operate, but with some differences, Trossen said. In today’s system, many content providers use BitTorrent to distribute legal content, he said. Similarly, a criminal who gets hold of decrypted content can also republish it there, he said. But with Pursuit, a criminal who republishes legal content won’t see any gain from it because the content will have been protected by its owner, he said. This issue is more about encryption than the Pursuit network, because the architecture doesn’t deal with content protection, he said. Pursuit would make it harder to block traffic, changing the concept of net neutrality, Trossen said. Net neutrality today is a regulatory issue and an “arms race” by ISPs to determine what users are doing with the “shredded” bits and pieces of information crossing their networks, he said. In the Pursuit architecture, because every piece of information can be explicitly labeled and located, ISPs could differentiate prices, service quality and other aspects at a very fine-grained level, he said. They could set prices for certain classes of information, but in a more transparent way, he said. It’s “difficult to say who might oppose Pursuit, Trossen said. That data won’t go back to servers means Tier 1 service providers, who provide connectivity to large networks, and some other economic players might not be happy, he said. Operators understand that the networks need renewal, but to enable Pursuit they will have to give customers new broadband routers and other equipment, he said. That will help device manufacturers sell new products, he said. Pursuit holds advantages for Google and other search engines, Trossen said. It won’t make searches passé because the search function runs at a different level, but search engines often give users stale or broken links because the Internet is based on the idea of having to go to a location, he said. If the server for that location has moved, the search will return an error message, which is bad for search engines, he said. The Internet Engineering Task Force’s research arm has set up a working group to identify elements of Pursuit that can be standardized, Trossen said. He predicted the shift to the new architecture will be driven not by core network providers but by information-rich industries sitting on massive amounts of data they have trouble communicating. For the retail sector, for instance, to have a network that allows it to uniquely identify each information item and send it is “extremely appealing,” he said. Moreover, the industry is powerful, and as customers of network operators, retailers can create requirements for solutions that look like Pursuit, he said. Pursuit is distinct from the Internet of Things in its focus on information rather than objects, he said.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge Computer Lab are trying a new Internet architecture they say will replace today’s system with a model similar to peer-to-peer file-sharing “but on a massive scale,” the university said Wednesday. The prototype, developed as part of an EU-funded project called “Pursuit,” will overhaul the existing structure of the Net’s Internet Protocol (IP) layer, through which isolated networks are connected, it said. That could enable “a more socially-minded and intelligent system” that lets users obtain information without needing direct access to servers where content is initially stored, it said, and could make the Internet faster, more efficient and more able to withstand rapidly escalating levels of global user demand. The new architecture has implications for net neutrality, said Dirk Trossen, senior researcher at the Computer Lab and Pursuit’s technical manager, in an interview. In addition, because it will likely replace the Internet Protocol, it will do away with the need for IPv4 or IPv6 addresses, he said. On today’s Internet, communications are directed to a particular IP address atop which various activities and applications ride, Trossen said. Pursuit focuses on the “stuff” users want to have or do, which would have labels much like IP addresses, he said. Someone who wants to view a particular video, for example, would ask the network to find the video, not to take her to a specific location, he said. Someone seeking a video on YouTube doesn’t care if it comes from a company server in Oregon or from the laptop of someone in the next room who’s watching it, he said. Individual computers would be able to copy and republish content on receipt, providing other users with the option to access data, or fragments of data, from a range of locations rather than the source itself, the university said. “Essentially, the model would enable all online content to be shared in a manner emulating the ‘peer-to-peer’ approach taken by some file-sharing sites, but on an unprecedented, internet-wide scale,” it said in a news release. This would be similar to BitTorrent in how applications operate, but with some differences, Trossen said. In today’s system, many content providers use BitTorrent to distribute legal content, he said. Similarly, a criminal who gets hold of decrypted content can also republish it there, he said. But with Pursuit, a criminal who republishes legal content won’t see any gain from it because the content will have been protected by its owner, he said. This issue is more about encryption than the Pursuit network, because the architecture doesn’t deal with content protection, he said. Pursuit would make it harder to block traffic, changing the concept of net neutrality, Trossen said. Net neutrality today is a regulatory issue and an “arms race” by ISPs to determine what users are doing with the “shredded” bits and pieces of information crossing their networks, he said. In the Pursuit architecture, because every piece of information can be explicitly labeled and located, ISPs could differentiate prices, service quality and other aspects at a very fine-grained level, he said. They could set prices for certain classes of information, but in a more transparent way, he said. It’s “difficult to say who might oppose Pursuit, Trossen said. That data won’t go back to servers means Tier 1 service providers, who provide connectivity to large networks, and some other economic players might not be happy, he said. Operators understand that the networks need renewal, but to enable Pursuit they will have to give customers new broadband routers and other equipment, he said. That will help device manufacturers sell new products, he said. Pursuit holds advantages for Google and other search engines, Trossen said. It won’t make searches passé because the search function runs at a different level, but search engines often give users stale or broken links because the Internet is based on the idea of having to go to a location, he said. If the server for that location has moved, the search will return an error message, which is bad for search engines, he said. The Internet Engineering Task Force’s research arm has set up a working group to identify elements of Pursuit that can be standardized, Trossen said. He predicted the shift to the new architecture will be driven not by core network providers but by information-rich industries sitting on massive amounts of data they have trouble communicating. For the retail sector, for instance, to have a network that allows it to uniquely identify each information item and send it is “extremely appealing,” he said. Moreover, the industry is powerful, and as customers of network operators, retailers can create requirements for solutions that look like Pursuit, he said. Pursuit is distinct from the Internet of Things in its focus on information rather than objects, he said.