A $13.4 million NTIA grant will extend broadband services to facilities across Utah, officials said. The funds will help the University of Utah expand the Utah Education Network, which provides Internet service to more than 300 schools and other community institutions, NTIA said. The project will also extend fiber-based Ethernet broadband to 130 additional elementary schools, public libraries and “a Head Start center that serves the Ute Indian Reservation.” NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said: “Projects like the grant announced today are laying the foundation for strong, sustainable economic growth for years to come.”
Ari Hershowitz is betting all U.S. laws, regulations and published court decisions will be available at low cost online within a few years. He thinks tying document-workflow and discussion tools into this body of law will transform the legal work from constantly reinventing the wheel behind the doors of isolated offices to close collaboration within and even between practices.
The FCC National Broadband Plan can act as the starting point for a number of new rulemaking proceedings, most likely including universal service and intercarrier compensation, Windstream CEO Jeff Gardner said on a conference call Thursday. Meanwhile, the operator is evaluating stimulus round two rules, particularly the RUS program, Senior Vice President Mike Rhoda told us.
Small rural telcos must answer questions about practices that large carriers call traffic pumping to increase access revenue, Democratic leaders of the House Commerce Committee told the companies in 24 letters sent late Tuesday. The inquiries follow up on October letters (CD Oct 15 p13) to AT&T, Verizon, Qwest and Sprint Nextel. An attorney for addressees of the new letter said he expects the rural carriers to be eager to cooperate.
The FCC should write a bold National Broadband Plan with a clear vision and policies that can ensure wider broadband access, adoption and competition, public-interest groups said Wednesday during a briefing on Capitol Hill. Speakers from the Consumer Federation of America, Free Press, Consumers Union and other organizations praised FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s goal of offering 100 million homes 100 Mbps Internet access by 2020, to give the U.S. the world’s largest market of ultra-broadband users.
Large and small companies and advocacy groups made late ex parte filings even as an FCC rulemaking notice on ex parte procedures was circulating. A review of more than 1,000 filings posted online by the commission Nov. 1 to Feb. 12 on a variety of issues found that this is a continuing practice. The rulemaking is set for a Thursday vote (CD Feb 10 p5).
The National Broadband Plan will include a recommended target that 100 million households have Internet access at 100 Mbps by 2020, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Tuesday at the NARUC Winter Meetings in Washington, D.C. Genachowski called the goal the “100 Squared” initiative. Meanwhile, with the plan due to be submitted to Congress March 17, NTIA released new numbers showing continuing growth in broadband adoption.
The keys to running a successful state universal service fund are clarity of purpose and clarity of process, said panelists at the winter meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. In a Tuesday session, consultants Peter Bluhm of Rolka, Loube, Salzer Associates and Eric Seguin, vice president corporate development with contract fund administrator Solix, joined Elizabeth Barnes, a lawyer with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, in parsing the best methods for managing a fund.
The National Broadband Plan will include a recommended target that 100 million households have Internet access at 100 Mbps by 2020, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Tuesday at the NARUC Winter Meetings in Washington, D.C. Genachowski called the goal the “100 Squared” initiative. Meanwhile, with the plan due to be submitted to Congress March 17, NTIA released new numbers showing continuing growth in broadband adoption.
Universal Service Fund legislation by Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Lee Terry, D-Neb., could win more urban support by integrating aspects of two other USF bills introduced by Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., said industry officials. But some warned that a combination could simultaneously cost the support of current backers of the Boucher-Terry legislation. The urban legislators’ bills, proposing new E-Rate and Lifeline programs to spur broadband adoption, may be at odds with the cost-saving focus of the Boucher bill, they said.