The National Broadband Plan will take into account “the unique circumstances” faced by American Indian tribes, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Tuesday during a speech to the National Congress of American Indians meeting in Washington. The FCC needs different programs to promote broadband deployment in “Monument Valley” than in Silicon Valley, Genachowski said: “I get that."

The FCC can provide universal service support to promote broadband deployment and adoption without classifying broadband as a Title II service, NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow said in a letter to Chairman Julius Genachowski. The commission has taken steps “to extend E-rate support for services used outside the classroom and relaxed the requirement that supported broadband service be used solely for educational purposes,” McSlarrow said: The reasoning that supports these actions “also supports making universal service funds available for broadband more generally, and not solely through the E-rate program.” If the commission is able “to develop efficient, appropriately targeted programs to support broadband deployment and adoption, it has the necessary authority to adopt such programs without reclassifying broadband” as a Title II service, he said.

Don’t forget rural consumers when thinking about the Comcast-NBC Universal deal, said the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies. In a letter last week to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Ranking Member Lamar Smith, R-Texas, OPASTCO said it’s “concerned that this merger will lead to reduced availability of video content for small, independent video and broadband service providers.” Small rural carriers fear the new company “will charge too much for its video content, block or restrict the ability of our members to provide programming to consumers, or prioritize the delivery of its own content to the detriment of consumers.” The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Comcast-NBC Universal deal Thursday (WID Feb 26 p3).

The Alliance for Digital Equality backed a Universal Service Fund bill by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., that would establish three E-rate pilot programs supporting broadband adoption (CD Feb 12 p1). The alliance has a program in Georgia that provides 50,000 students with online homework help. “Unfortunately, there is still a digital divide that exists today and as a result, many minority and low-income Americans still do not realize the benefits of the digital revolution,” said Alliance Chairman Julius Hollis. “Without affordable access to the vast opportunity that broadband access allows, these already disadvantaged citizens are falling further behind.”

SAN FRANCISCO -- The FCC is making “the hard decision” with the National Broadband Plan to shift universal service money toward broadband from current “less productive” uses, instead of creating a new fund at consumers’ expense as the industry would prefer, said Blair Levin, who runs the commission’s staff work on the plan. Most of the lines that don’t support broadband belong to AT&T, Qwest and Verizon, and under the high-cost USF system, “they have no incentive to upgrade,” he said late Wednesday at a Goldman Sachs conference.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s goal of providing 500 MHz of new spectrum for wireless broadband over the next 10 years (CD Feb 25 p1) would benefit wireless infrastructure companies, such as American Tower, Crown Castle, SBA Communications, Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson, Ciena and Tellabs, said Washington Research Group analyst Paul Gallant in a research note. Flexibility to sell excess spectrum through a mobile futures auction “should be good for local TV stations, although there is no indication yet of precisely what share of the auction proceeds broadcasters would actually capture,” Gallant said. The potential losers are rural local exchange carriers, he said. “Genachowski said the universal service fund would not grow larger and yet the FCC would do more with it potential risk for RLECs,” the note said. “But Genachowski did not mention intercarrier compensation, a key source of RLEC subsidies. So important elements remain unclear.”

The National Broadband Plan will contain many specific recommendations on “all of the areas you would expect,” said Edward Lazarus, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s chief of staff, in a keynote at Catholic University’s Communications Symposium Wednesday.

The National Broadband Plan will contain many specific recommendations on “all of the areas you would expect,” said Edward Lazarus, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s chief of staff, in a keynote at Catholic University’s Communications Symposium Wednesday.

The National Broadband Plan will contain many specific recommendations on “all of the areas you would expect,” said Edward Lazarus, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s chief of staff, in a keynote at Catholic University’s Communications Symposium Wednesday.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated parts of the National Broadband Plan to the other commissioner offices Tuesday. Commissioners still don’t have a full text of the plan, but sections are supposed to be circulated as they're completed by staff, we learned. Meanwhile, Genachowski continued a series of speeches on broadband Tuesday, formally releasing the results of a new survey on “Broadband Adoption and Use in America” that’s expected to get prominent mention in the plan. But industry groups warned the agency that reclassifying broadband as a Title II service, subject to stricter regulation, a proposal reportedly under consideration at the FCC, would push money away from investment in broadband lines.