The federal government has failed in pioneering U.S. broadband deployment and thus prompts states and cities to lead, Gig.U Executive Director Blair Levin told Wisconsin broadband stakeholders Thursday. “As there is no reasonable expectation that the FCC will take any substantial action to change the investment equation in the near-term, states and cities must act to do so,” Levin said, according to his prepared remarks (http://bit.ly/Xs9g1D). The Wisconsin Public Service Commission is hosting a symposium on how to advance broadband adoption and deployment Thursday and Friday of this week in Madison, Wis. The PSC includes its own state broadband director, Tithi Chattopadhyay, who started last fall and has helped lead the PSC’s broadband efforts, which include a broadband playbook (1.usa.gov/XqhZvV) directed toward state legislators and policy officials. The playbook was formally released and presented in late March, although it was initially completed and went through a round of comments last fall. It “is a tool that all stakeholders need to study and explore to identify specific broadband actions and initiatives that can be considered for the state,” said the PSC commissioners in their March letter presenting the 15-page book. The symposium included a keynote from Levin, who helped manage the creation of the National Broadband Plan, and panels with industry and state officials. The National Broadband Plan struggled because “D.C. culture doesn’t lend itself to effective experimentation,” Levin said in his speech. “The Broadband Plan analysis demonstrated that the biggest problem for unserved areas stemmed from the lack of incentives to upgrade the networks in areas dominated by the three largest wireline phone companies.” Levin did credit the success of the $4 billion broadband stimulus program. He questioned the FCC’s USF reform and said the major companies “have indicated the reform package will not catalyze significant network deployments” and pointed to smaller companies that have stalled progress due to the uncertainty the reform created. The shortcomings of the reform “put it in a hole,” he said, noting it misses the impact of 4G and wireless and satellite on rural regions that need more bandwidth. “In sum, while the FCC shifted billions of dollars around, the combination of carrots and sticks created by the FCC actions has resulted in minimal deployments in the most problematic unserved areas identified in the Plan, a slowdown of deployment in other areas, consumers paying more, a failure to anticipate future needs and a punt of a central issue.” He praised local experimentation with broadband networks and noted how aware cities are of competing with one another. “Cities, and not the federal government, are leading in experimenting with new forms of mutual agreements that serve today and tomorrow’s needs,” Levin said, expressing confidence in municipal leadership and implicitly criticizing laws that restrict municipally owned networks: “We should also squarely look at the conflict that occurs when a state curtails a city’s ability to take control of its own bandwidth destiny.” The FCC disputed the characterization: “The Commission’s reform of USF to create the Connect America Fund is expanding broadband to rural Americans who lack access while for the first time putting the Fund on a budget, though we're still in the early innings,” an FCC spokesman said in response to Levin’s speech. “Last July, the Connect America Fund began connecting nearly 400,000 Americans unserved by broadband in 37 states. Last October, the Commission launched the Mobility Fund, providing $300 million to extend advanced mobile wireless service on up to 83,000 unserved road miles in 31 states, reaching areas where millions of Americans live, work, or travel. This October, the new Tribal Mobility Fund will provide $50 million to increase availability of advanced mobile services on Tribal Lands.” The spokesman emphasized broadband plans to come. “The Commission is also on track to launch, later this year, both the second phase of the Connect America Fund, which will distribute up to $1.8 billion a year to deploy broadband to millions of Americans across the country, and the second phase of the Mobility Fund, which will distribute $500 million annually to deploy mobile broadband to unserved areas,” he said. “The FCC has accomplished this entirely through savings from reforms, without increasing the size of the Fund or the cost to consumers and small businesses who pay into it. In fact, thanks to the Commission’s reforms of Lifeline, the overall size of USF -- and the USF contribution factor -- are both shrinking since reforms took effect. The contribution factor has decreased in each of the past two quarters, dropping nearly 15% from its high.” Intercarrier compensation reform will “unleash over $1.5 billion in annual benefits to consumers by eliminating hidden calling costs while removing major barriers to deployments of advanced IP-based broadband networks, such as AT&T’s announcement in November that it would substantially expand its U-Verse footprint,” the spokesman added. “Together, these reforms put the country on track to connect the 19 million Americans who lack service by the end of the decade.”

The federal government has failed in pioneering U.S. broadband deployment and thus prompts states and cities to lead, Gig.U Executive Director Blair Levin told Wisconsin broadband stakeholders Thursday. “As there is no reasonable expectation that the FCC will take any substantial action to change the investment equation in the near-term, states and cities must act to do so,” Levin said, according to his prepared remarks (http://bit.ly/Xs9g1D). The Wisconsin Public Service Commission is hosting a symposium on how to advance broadband adoption and deployment Thursday and Friday of this week in Madison, Wis. The PSC employs its own state broadband director, Tithi Chattopadhyay, who started last fall and has helped lead the PSC’s broadband efforts, which include a broadband playbook (1.usa.gov/XqhZvV) directed toward state legislators and policy officials. The playbook was formally released and presented in late March, although it was initially completed and went through a round of comments last fall. It “is a tool that all stakeholders need to study and explore to identify specific broadband actions and initiatives that can be considered for the state,” said the PSC commissioners in their March letter presenting the 15-page book. The symposium included a keynote from Levin, who helped manage the creation of the FCC National Broadband Plan, and panels with industry and state officials. The NBP struggled because “D.C. culture doesn’t lend itself to effective experimentation,” Levin said in his speech. “The Broadband Plan analysis demonstrated that the biggest problem for unserved areas stemmed from the lack of incentives to upgrade the networks in areas dominated by the three largest wireline phone companies.” Levin called the $4 billion U.S. broadband stimulus program a success. He questioned the FCC’s USF reform and said the major companies “have indicated the reform package will not catalyze significant network deployments” and pointed to smaller companies that have stalled progress due to the uncertainty the reform created. The shortcomings of the reform “put it in a hole,” he said, noting it misses the impact of 4G and wireless and satellite on rural regions that need more bandwidth. “In sum, while the FCC shifted billions of dollars around, the combination of carrots and sticks created by the FCC actions has resulted in minimal deployments in the most problematic unserved areas identified in the Plan, a slowdown of deployment in other areas, consumers paying more, a failure to anticipate future needs and a punt of a central issue.” He praised local experimentation with broadband networks and noted how aware cities are of competing with one another. “Cities, and not the federal government, are leading in experimenting with new forms of mutual agreements that serve today and tomorrow’s needs,” Levin said. He expressed confidence in municipal leadership and criticized laws that restrict municipally owned networks: “We should also squarely look at the conflict that occurs when a state curtails a city’s ability to take control of its own bandwidth destiny.” The FCC disputed the characterization. “The Commission’s reform of USF to create the Connect America Fund is expanding broadband to rural Americans who lack access while for the first time putting the Fund on a budget, though we're still in the early innings,” spokesman respond to Levin’s speech. “Last July, the Connect America Fund began connecting nearly 400,000 Americans unserved by broadband in 37 states. Last October, the Commission launched the Mobility Fund, providing $300 million to extend advanced mobile wireless service on up to 83,000 unserved road miles in 31 states, reaching areas where millions of Americans live, work, or travel. This October, the new Tribal Mobility Fund will provide $50 million to increase availability of advanced mobile services on Tribal Lands.” Broadband plans are to come, the spokesman said. “The Commission is also on track to launch, later this year, both the second phase of the Connect America Fund, which will distribute up to $1.8 billion a year to deploy broadband to millions of Americans across the country, and the second phase of the Mobility Fund, which will distribute $500 million annually to deploy mobile broadband to unserved areas,” he said by email. “The FCC has accomplished this entirely through savings from reforms, without increasing the size of the Fund or the cost to consumers and small businesses who pay into it. In fact, thanks to the Commission’s reforms of Lifeline, the overall size of USF -- and the USF contribution factor -- are both shrinking since reforms took effect. The contribution factor has decreased in each of the past two quarters, dropping nearly 15 percent from its high.” Intercarrier compensation reform will “unleash over $1.5 billion in annual benefits to consumers by eliminating hidden calling costs while removing major barriers to deployments of advanced IP-based broadband networks, such as AT&T’s announcement in November that it would substantially expand its U-Verse footprint,” the spokesman added. “Together, these reforms put the country on track to connect the 19 million Americans who lack service by the end of the decade.”

April 2 State Department International Telecommunication Advisory Committee meets on ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference, 2 p.m., 1300 I St. NW, West tower’s 4th floor -- http://1.usa.gov/XHAXjo

The FCC asks a battery of questions in an NPRM approved Wednesday that tries to get to the bottom of what went wrong in June when the derecho storm led to problems at 77 public safety answering points across Ohio, the central Appalachians and the Mid-Atlantic states, with 17 PSAPs losing service completely. FCC officials said the NPRM is open-ended and doesn’t draw tentative conclusions, though it could lead to new requirements for carriers. The questions raised are based on the problems identified in the Jan. 10 FCC report on the storm (http://bit.ly/ZTzB3M).

*March 18 FCC Technology Transitions Policy Task Force workshop, 9:30 a.m., Commission Meeting Room -- www.fcc.gov/live

The state decision on whether to opt out of FirstNet “doesn’t happen today,” said NTIA Program Manager Laura Pettus Friday during a Broadband US TV discussion of the $7 billion national public safety network. She first described in a presentation followed by a conversation with several others the FirstNet implementation grant process that’s currently receiving applications. “We've heard from almost every state, that they plan to participate,” Pettus said. She said the more than $100 million in grants is “not a lot of money” when divided up but “extremely valuable” as an upfront infusion to kick off states’ stakeholder consultation process. “The opt-out decision happens down the line.” Even if a state opts out, the network it creates will still have to fold into what will be a nationwide network either way, she added. Participants debated FirstNet’s necessary level of hardening standards, its choice of LTE, potential collaboration with utilities and other entities, the sufficiency of funding and potential controversy over what attorney and co-moderator Marty Stern of K&L Gates called “a wireless carrier-centric approach” laid out at the FirstNet board’s first meeting last fall. Alcatel-Lucent Director-Mission Critical Broadband Solutions Michael Hardiman and Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials Chief Counsel Jeff Cohen said the network will primarily be used to transfer data but could include non-mission critical voice, useful as a backup. Cohen has heard guesses from vendors that mission-critical voice may be possible in four to 12 years, he said, saying there’s reason to be optimistic but no one can know for sure. Cohen spoke highly of the FirstNet board’s initial presentations on possible network design and credited them as part of its “excellent opportunity” to solicit feedback, captured in NTIA’s fall notice of inquiry. NTIA’s Pettus underscored the “priority of stakeholders” that the FirstNet board is considering, with a focus on public safety and state, local and tribal stakeholders now. “They're all a part of the plan,” she said, referring to the limitations of FirstNet’s “skeleton staff” now.

The FCC’s regression model has incorrectly classified Alaskan telcos as less than 100 percent “tribal,” even though the Bureau of Indian Affairs has designated all of Alaska as 100 percent tribal, officials from Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative, TelAlaska and Copper Valley Telecom told an aide to Commissioner Ajit Pai Monday (http://bit.ly/XiesS9). The Wireline Bureau has acknowledged the error, but has not yet corrected it, the groups said. They also questioned the regression model’s underlying climate data inputs. The groups praised the upcoming Arctic Fibre undersea fiber project that will bring fiber landings to Alaska while providing “vastly superior” pricing and capacity than is now available, they said.

Partners in the mobile emergency alert system effort are nearing the end of the technology standardization process and moving toward commercialization of the equipment and implementation of the system, said Harris Broadcast, Mobile500 Alliance and other partners. Commercial and noncommercial broadcasters have demonstrated the technology and are planning to take it up, they said. The effort began as a pilot project headed by PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting aimed at distributing emergency alerts to the public using video, text messages and other media (CD June 6 p11). Mobile EAS uses the mobile DTV equipment infrastructure.

Feb. 19 Broadband Breakfast Club event on data caps, 8:30 a.m., Clyde’s, 707 7th St. NW -- http://xrl.us/bnrny3

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will join the FCC and Connect2Compete to make digital literacy training available in public housing locations throughout the country, Chairman Julius Genachowski said Thursday. HUD will work with public housing agencies, industry and tribal groups to raise awareness about the Connect2Compete digital literacy program, Genachowski said. Assisted by Best Buy’s “Geek Squads,” the groups will initially roll out their training programs in Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Philadelphia, Washington, and St. Paul, Minn., an FCC spokesman said. Best Buy is among the companies that’s been working with the C2C program of cable ISPs and other companies to provide inexpensive broadband service to poor households (CD Aug 8 p13). The Internet is the platform for education, healthcare and public safety, and “it’s just not acceptable to think of this platform as anything other than a universal service” that’s available to everyone in the country, Genachowski said. “If you have connectivity but you don’t know how to use the programs and the software, it doesn’t really help,” he said. “I am in love with Connect2Compete,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. “The most important predictor” of a child’s success in life is their ZIP code, he said. “That is simply wrong in the United States today,” he said. “That’s what this partnership is about."