Boulder took a first step toward becoming the latest city in Colorado to try to create its own broadband network despite a restrictive state law. City officials said the proposal may run into the same monied opposition from the telecom industry that a proposal in the neighboring community of Longmont encountered in 2009 and 2011. To municipal broadband advocates, the prospect of big-money opposition to Boulder and a state measure backing muni broadband in Tennessee is significant, coming as the FCC may move to pre-empt state laws that pose obstacles for municipal broadband (CD June 16 p15).

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai drew a line in the sand Wednesday: “I will not support any reform plan that boosts E-rate’s budget,” he told a packed ballroom at an FCBA luncheon. Reforms in the way the current E-rate budget is spent will make the currently allocated budget stretch further, he said. Pai also lamented what he called a partisan atmosphere at FCC headquarters. “No one party has a monopoly on wisdom,” he said.

Network congestion on the Internet “does not appear to be widespread” and is mostly confined to “recognized business issues” like Netflix’s complaints of streaming latency, a “preliminary” study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) said Wednesday. Congestion that does exist “can come and go essentially overnight” due to provider-initiated network reconfigurations and changes in content routing, the study said (http://bit.ly/1oGQoJG). The results are “very early” findings in a project that will eventually become an “atlas” of congestion on the Internet, said David Clark, senior research scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, at a Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee event marking the study’s release.

The FCC further ramped up pressure on its Communications Security, Reliability & Interoperability Council Wednesday to take the lead on cybersecurity. David Simpson, chief of the Public Safety Bureau, led off the meeting, amplifying remarks FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler made last week at the American Enterprise Institute, warning that if a private-sector-based initiative doesn’t work the FCC stands ready to impose regulation (CD June 13 p1).

The FCC is contacting ‘underperforming’ ISPs to find out why they've failed to deliver consistent speeds, the agency said Wednesday. Its fourth Measuring Broadband America report (http://fcc.us/1soP2Vx) has a new focus on “consistency” of speeds. Most broadband providers are delivering actual speeds at least as fast as what they advertised, but some providers have “significant room for improvement,” the report said.

Lawmakers and CLEC executives offered a robust defense of the Telecom Act of 1996 and made the case for competition Wednesday during a Library of Congress event. The Broadband Coalition hosted the speakers, with Comptel CEO Chip Pickering, a former Republican congressman from Mississippi who helped author the 1996 act, coordinating and framing the event as a fight that he and others are only now beginning in earnest. The campaign comes as House Republicans push to overhaul the 1996 act and as several proposed telecom and media acquisitions face scrutiny from lawmakers, the FCC and the Justice Department.

The “MusicBus” bill being developed (CD June 11 p12) by House Judiciary IP Subcommittee ranking member Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., could include recently introduced pieces of music licensing legislation, plus other critical licensing issues, said music industry experts and attorneys in recent interviews. Nadler’s comprehensive bill could update a music licensing system that they said is in desperate need of reform. A comprehensive bill like Nadler’s might create more infighting within a vast array of stakeholders, said others. Music licensing is “clearly and undeniably” in “need of reform,” he said in an interview. The bill is expected to drop this summer, said his spokesman.

A united front by noncommercial and commercial broadcasters to get the FCC to change some of the provisions of the incentive auction framework will be tough, but could help bring about some relief that broadcasters seek, professionals in both industries said in recent interviews. Public broadcasting organizations and NAB were very critical with parts of the order after it was released this month (CD June 9 p2). “There will be extensive outreach and discussions with broadcasters to ensure they have the information they need to make informed decisions about participation,” an FCC spokeswoman said.

The digital divide is narrowing, but the nation must turn its attention to a gap in digital readiness, said John Horrigan, a communications researcher and former FCC official, at a forum sponsored by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Releasing a new study at the event Tuesday, Horrigan noted the percentage of Americans with broadband at home has increased from 63 percent in 2009 to 72 percent in 2013, and when new devices like smartphones are included, the percentage of Americans with advanced online access rises to 82 percent. Horrigan also said 85 percent of Americans use the Internet. The number of people without access to broadband has decreased from 83 million in 2009 to 43 million now.

CTIA’s top priority is spectrum “and it always will be,” new President Meredith Baker told reporters Tuesday. A former FCC commissioner and acting NTIA administrator, Baker noted that Tuesday was only her 12th day on the job since she took over from Steve Largent. CTIA will devote all the resources necessary to “successfully shift spectrum to mobile broadband use in the years to come,” she said.