FCC Broadband Report Draws Ire From USTelecom’s McCormick
USTelecom deflected accusations broadband isn’t being deployed in a timely manner to all Americans. The finding of the National Broadband Plan “is at odds with the findings of this more recent report that says that broadband deployment is not reasonable,” USTelecom President Walter McCormick said on The Kojo Nnamdi Show Tuesday on WAMU(FM) Washington. McCormick referred to the FCC’s Section 706 report that estimated 14 to 24 million Americans, many of whom are living in rural areas, still lack access to broadband. “We think [the report] was intended to alarm” and “we are concerned that this report is going to be used as a predicate for increased regulation,” he said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
"It’s not about regulation,” said Rick Kaplan, chief counsel to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “I think that’s a misnomer here. It’s about setting the stage for the possibility that folks can compete, people can get better prices, people can get the best services … and that’s what we're trying to do.” Also on the show, Kaplan reiterated the commission’s obligation to deliver broadband access to the Americans who are still not being served. “Our view is not from an industry standpoint,” said Kaplan, “it’s from the consumer perspective.”
"If I'm sitting somewhere in the country and it doesn’t have broadband and it’s not going to come soon … can I say it’s reasonable, can I say it’s timely?” asked Kaplan. “And in our view the answer is no, so we need to find ways to supplement what the good folks at USTelecom are doing” to “achieve Congress’s goal of universal broadband,” he said. The report said the FCC should take four steps to ensure that complete broadband deployment can occur as quickly as possible, including reform the FCC’s universal service programs to support broadband through public/private partnerships.
McCormick agreed the FCC needed to reform universal service programs. “I can tell you our companies desire to provide access to broadband,” he said. “The way for this to happen is to reform universal service so that universal service support is given on a wire center level” to rural, and undeserved areas. McCormick proposed three ways the FCC could help broadband providers achieve Congress’ goals of universal coverage. First, McCormick said the agency should strive to achieve parity in pole attachment rates. Secondly, it should work to reform the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation process. Finally, McCormick said the commission should avoid investment stifling regulation. “In that area we really do have a concern with recent proposals by the FCC to regulate Internet access services as monopoly telephone services,” said McCormick.
The FCC needs to collect better broadband data to move forward on universal coverage, Free Press Research Director Derek Turner said later in the broadcast. The agency doesn’t “really understand where broadband is and where it isn’t,” he said. “The industry has for so long resisted giving up information to the FCC about where their facilities actually are under the ground that the FCC had to go about estimating this figure. And what they had to do was basically go and assume that everywhere there is a cable line in the ground that can deliver cable television, that area could be served by broadband. They don’t know that it’s actually served by broadband.”