NATOA Says FCC Doesn’t Have Much to Go On in Deciding on Broadband Comparisons
The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors questioned whether the record developed to date gives the FCC a solid basis to decide how best to compare broadband deployment in the U.S. with the rest of the world. Tight timeframes and other distractions mean few offered guidance as the FCC seeks to implement a key requirement of the Broadband Data Improvement Act, NATOA said in reply comments at the agency.
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The act, approved by Congress last year, requires the FCC to include international comparisons in its Section 706 broadband report. The FCC must also include a survey on broadband service throughout the country using Census data. But only 18 parties filed original comments or replies on the issues raised (CD April 14 p1).
“As the record in this proceeding to date indicates, very few commenters have supplied the Commission with guidance on how best to meet the requirements imposed by Congress under BDIA, an outcome the likely result of the Commission’s timing for comments and replies,” NATOA said. “As the Commission is well aware, comments for both the NTIA broadband grant program implementation docket and the Commission’s own docket related to its advisory role to NTIA were due on April 13, 2009.” NATOA said the concurrent due dates “could have the effect of depriving the Commission of the fullest possible record to consider when deciding how best to meet its international comparison and consumer survey requirements under BDIA.”
NATOA said the comments submitted agree on one key point: “A bare statistical analysis of broadband penetration and adoption, absent consideration of myriad economical, social, and political factors would do no better than any currently existing measurement of broadband deployment.”
In its reply comments, AT&T took dead aim at comments by XO and NextLink that suggested that, in drawing international comparisons, the FCC should focus particular attention on countries that have implemented broadband unbundling regimes, and also calling on the agency to collect data from broadband providers. Both are counter to the broadband act, AT&T said.
“In directing the Commission to make international comparisons, Congress did not want the Commission to focus myopically on countries that have pursued aggressive unbundling policies,” AT&T said. “To the contrary, Congress instructed the Commission to examine a wide variety of technical, economic, demographic, regulatory and other factors that may affect broadband deployment.” AT&T said nothing in the BDIA could be read as requiring the FCC to acquire more data from carriers. “XO makes no attempt to demonstrate otherwise and its argument should be seen -- and rejected - for what it is: a brazen attempt to hijack the consumer survey section of the BDIA to serve its own regulatory agenda with respect to a pending CLEC petition regarding the Commission’s rules for the retirement of copper loops.”
Heather Gold, senior vice president at XO, told us the AT&T comments were “disingenuous.” AT&T slams her company for making a filing that was self serving, Gold said. “Has AT&T ever filed something that didn’t support its own interests? … It is appropriate to look at all these things because we're trying to look at our standing versus the rest of the world. We know other countries use copper extensively for high speed access to broadband. It is specious.”
In its replies, Verizon agreed with AT&T that there’s “no legitimate basis to subject carriers to additional reporting requirements, as XO/Nextlink requests.” Verizon said most commenters agree that making international comparisons is a tough assignment. The record “shows that the task of obtaining reliable and consistent data for the many foreign countries (and communities within those countries) that the Commission is required to study will not be easy,” the carrier said. “Existing sources of international broadband data, such as those compiled by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, perhaps are a starting point, but ultimately are inadequate for the task at hand.”
NCTA had similar advice on the difficulty of making comparisons. “Simply identifying the extent to which broadband service is available to households (the rate of deployment) and the extent to which households choose to purchase broadband service (the rate of penetration) will not be sufficient,” the cable group said. “Nor will simply measuring and comparing transmission speeds and prices. The Commission must also take into account such variables as: market structures, the number of competitors, the number of facilities-based providers, the types of technologies deployed by such providers, the applications and services those technologies enable, the regulatory model under which broadband service capability is provided, the types of applications and services used, business and residential use of such services, and other media available to consumers.”