BDAC Wraps Up Work on Model State Code, Rechartered for 2 Years

“We put a lot on your plate and you've delivered,” Pai said. “Your work here is not just spinning wheels. … It’s creating real recommendations that we take very seriously.” Pai acknowledged controversy about BDAC, noting debate has been “robust” at times. “We wanted you to hash out some of these difficult issues,” he said. Pai plans to ask the panel to focus on new areas, including encouraging deployment in low-income areas.

BDAC Chair Elizabeth Bowles said in an interview she's pleased with how the work turned out and hopes to stay on. Bowles said BDAC approved all of the components of the code, but not the code as a whole, after consultation with the FCC.

“We as a committee were able to have deep, meaningful, full discussions of the issues that came before us and to reach the point where we could vote,” Bowles said. “While we didn’t have 100 percent consensus on everything, everyone had an opportunity to be heard and everything was passed or was rejected after a full and complete discussion.”

Bowles said the workload will likely be “somewhat” lighter under the new charter. The municipal and state model codes “were pretty heavy lifts,” she said. “We talked through some of the meatier and tanglier issues,” she said. “We’ve taken on some very difficult issues that intelligent people can disagree on.” Bowles, president of wireless ISP Aristotle, hopes the code will be posted this year.

Kristian Stout, International Center for Law & Economics associate director, was “pleasantly surprised” by how much BDAC accomplished. “I was skeptical that a part-time committee could produce two model codes in the allotted time frame,” Stout told us. “More broadly, I think most of the compromises were about as good as you can expect. I would have liked to see more support for the idea of model statewide franchises. I would have preferred to see a provision for balloting questions about muni-broadband.”

National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jim Matheson slammed the state model code. “Existing federal programs have failed to close the digital divide and the BDAC missed an opportunity to offer meaningful solutions to expand broadband access in rural America,” Matheson emailed. “Just two of the 13 articles in the state model code specifically address rural issues. Instead of focusing on solutions for unserved and underserved rural communities, many of the recommendations focus on issues specific to urban areas where broadband is already available.”

The main debate Friday was on the code's Article 12, encouraging local areas to examine “rural broadband networks -- public, private and municipal owned,” only when companies don’t jump in to offer broadband. The section was approved with abstentions. The code stipulates the preference is for private rather than public networks.

Chris Nurse, AT&T assistant vice president-external affairs, criticized the focus on municipal broadband. “This distracts us from getting to the solution,” Nurse said. “You have to broaden the base. That means Google and Amazon, Netflix, Facebook, other beneficiaries in the ecosystem are not contributing to the base.” States like Mississippi where there's the most need can’t take care of themselves, Nurse said. No state fund will be big enough, he said. “You can’t have the poor subsidize the poor,” Nurse said. “Connecticut and New Jersey need to subsidize Mississippi.”

Andy Huckaba, Lenexa, Kansas, council member, said too many parts of the country can’t get broadband from private providers. “We’ve got cities that are withering up and dying,” he said. “People have been on farms for four or five generations and can’t stay on the farms because they don’t have connectivity.” Some communities just “don’t meet the business cases for the traditional providers,” he said. “The citizens are demanding ‘do something for us.’ They’re demanding to the city managers. They’re demanding it to the elected officials.”

Uniti Fiber gets lots of complaints from customers of muni networks, said Kelly McGriff, general counsel. They call "saying, ‘our service is terrible, the prices are high and we cannot get anyone out here … to give us any upgrades or anything of that nature.'” “We oftentimes find where there’s municipal network, the city refuses to allow us in, so they have a captive audience.”

The muni broadband language isn’t “perfect,” but “it opens up the possibility” that some areas will try for the service, said Michael Hain, Nittany Media general manager.

“I don't like all of the language but I really think it's a great step forward,” said David Young, BDAC vice chair and city official from Lincoln, Nebraska.

BDAC got a brief update from its new Disaster Response and Recovery Working Group, just beginning its work. The information came from Chairman Red Grasso with the North Carolina Department of Information Technology and Vice Chairman Jonathan Adelstein, president of the Wireless Infrastructure Association.