FCC Approves New Broadband Data Collection Requirements

McDowell submitted edits to definitions on advanced services “after 5 p.m. last night,” FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters after the meeting. Martin blamed the meeting’s delayed start -- it began 90 minutes late -- on McDowell, noting that McDowell had the proposal since October. “We never heard any concerns being raised by Commissioner McDowell until late last night,” he said.

Broadband classifications’ status in the data collection order remained unclear late Wednesday. Sources described a complex series of events in which McDowell sent out a proposal to eliminate labels such as “premium” and “robust” to describe various broadband tiers, in favor of numbered tiers. That occurred at 5:23 p.m. Tuesday. At 5:50 p.m., commissioner Deborah Tate agreed to that change. A new data collection draft circulated at 11:44 p.m. Copps’ and Adelstein’s offices endorsed the edits just before 9 a.m. Wednesday. - providing four votes to eliminate the proposed labels.

But at 9:39 a.m., as the meeting was to begin, the chairman’s office circulated a new classification scheme for the data collection order, under which anything below 768 kbps no longer would be deemed broadband. Minutes later, Copps’ office, then Adelstein’s office, supported the chairman’s last edit, giving Martin a majority.

McDowell dissented to the part of the data collection order on labels. The majority was “playing with fire” by “attaching subjective and perhaps misleading terms and definitions,” he said at the meeting. That created a problem for Martin.

Because Copps and Adelstein dissented to the entire 706 report and because McDowell dissented to the labeling language, the chairman found himself without a majority on labels. As this problem emerged during the open meeting, Martin was forced to remove the labeling language to get three votes for the 706 report.

Possible fixes have surfaced, sources said. Before they sign off on the final report, Martin could cut a deal with McDowell, or convince Adelstein or Copps to back only the part of the 706 report on labels. “I would be surprised if the chairman’s not working to salvage those labels in the 706 report,” said one agency source.

Other Items Approved

The commission will collect data by census tract in preparing future reports, it said. Previously that was done by 5-digit ZIP code. The FCC also decided to obtain and map more information on broadband availability. The requirements take effect after Office of Management & Budget approval and the order’s Federal Register appearance. Copps approved the new requirements but called it a mistake not to distinguish between business and residential markets.

The FCC will replace the 200 kbps definition for minimum broadband speed when collecting data with a tiered system that includes upload and download speed information. The FCC also aims to collect more and better quality detail on wireless broadband deployment, it said. The order sets “basic broadband” as having speeds between 768 kbps and 1.5 Mbps. The next six tiers are: 1.5 Mbps to 3 Mbps, 3 Mbps to 6 Mbps, 6 Mbps to 10 Mbps, 10 Mbps to 25 Mbps, 25 Mbps to 100 Mbps, and greater than 100 Mbps. Speeds between 200 kbps and 768 kbps will be called “first generation” data.

The FCC should avoid reporting requirements that may be “unduly burdensome” or put carriers at a competitive disadvantage, McDowell said. His statement echoed recent comments by USTelecom, CTIA and other groups, which said more granular data collection could raise costs. But more detailed data are needed, said Tate. She would have preferred the FCC defer updates on speed definitions to a further notice to ensure the commission would avoid “unintended consequences,” she said.

Collecting by census tract is “far preferable” to using 9-digit ZIP codes, the National Telecommunication Cooperative Association said. In joint comments with USTelecom last week, NTCA said changes to collection could be “extremely costly.” But NTCA doesn’t oppose “looking at the data more granularly,” a spokeswoman said. Census tracts are more manageable and stable geographically than ZIP codes, she said. They can be cross-correlated with Census demographic data, she said. USTelecom lauded the advanced services report, saying it will study the data collection changes. CTIA said it wouldn’t comment on data collection until it saw the items.

Copps will “push hard” to ensure that the definition evolves to reflect technology change, he said. Adelstein, who backs the new definitions, said he was unclear whether they apply to regulatory matters outside the advanced services report’s purview.

A further notice will seek more information on broadband pricing and how to improve gathering of broadband service availability. Copps said deferring price to a proposed rulemaking was a “mistake” that will devalue future reports. Adelstein agreed the FCC should collect data on broadband affordability.

The approved advanced services report found “continued growth” in the U.S. broadband market, Martin said. The report was available late Wednesday on the FCC site. In the first half of 2007 high-speed lines grew 22 percent to 100.9 million. More than 99 percent of the population lives in the more than 99 percent of ZIP codes with at least one high- speed service. By July 2007, DSL was available to 82 percent of households with phone service from local incumbents. Cable broadband was available to 96 percent of households that can get cable TV.

Dissenting commissioners Copps and Adelstein called for a national broadband strategy. “We can write reports from time immemorial” saying broadband is rolling out at an appropriate pace, “but the fact is we never had any national strategy to get the job done,” Copps said. Consumers in other nations pay less for broadband than Americans do, he added. The report “fails to admit” that despite U.S. progress, other countries’ broadband services are improving faster, Adelstein said.

In other action, the FCC, as expected, approved 5-0 an order barring phone companies from signing exclusive contracts with residential multi-tenant units. The retroactive order blocks enforcement of existing exclusives. The ban creates “regulatory parity,” dovetailing with a 2007 ban on cable operators entering exclusive contracts for apartment buildings, Martin said. The order puts ILECs and CLECs on “equal footing,” McDowell said. The action “won’t solve competition or broadband problems, but it’s a worthy step,” Adelstein said.

The apartment industry opposes the ban, said Jim Arbury, Government Affairs vice president for the National Multi Housing Council and National Apartment Association joint legislative program. Apartment owners use exclusives “to force telecommunications providers to lower their prices and improve their service offerings,” he said. “By taking this bargaining tool away from owners, the FCC has essentially removed a key incentive these firms had to negotiate with apartment owners.” -- Adam Bender, Howard Buskirk

FCC Meeting Notes

After the meeting, Martin told reporters that the FCC is devoting “significant staff resources” to complying with a Hill request for documents related to a regulatory procedure investigation dating to January (CD March 13 p1). Of plans for a net management hearing at Stanford University, Martin said he hasn’t heard what it would cost to jet FCC staffers there to set up shop in California. “Obviously there’s travel involved out there,” he said. The hearing likely won’t affect the FCC timetable for tackling a complaint about Comcast net management practices, Martin said. That should be done by the end of the second quarter, he said. There are no plans for another hearing after Stanford, he said. -- AB

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FCC Commissioner Deborah Tate responded to “rumor” that commissioners’ interactions are at a low ebb (CD March 18 p1). “I wanted to take a moment to set the record straight,” she said. “This commission… values collegiality more than confrontation. We agree more than we disagree as you can see today.” Tate urged the FCC to focus on “critical” issues, not “rumor about our personal interaction.”

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Prior to the meeting, the FCC approved carriage rules for direct broadcast satellite service operators. No details are available, but the commission was expected to accept a tack favored by DBS that would phase in their carriage of local HD signals, giving them until 2013 to carry all signals in all markets they enter.