POWELL SAYS NPRM IS NEEDED TO DEFINE WHAT CONSTITUTES BROADBAND
Clarification of what constitutes broadband service and infrastructure is critical to laying groundwork for effective govt. policy, FCC Chmn. Powell said at ALTS conference in Arlington, Va., Fri. He said broadband Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) was on horizon at Commission, measure that he said was necessary to correct what thus far had been govt. policy of “lurching and reacting” to unanswered questions about broadband. He lamented pervasive references to broadband as “simple incremental advance from telephone service.” Debate over this evolving area of communications “continues to be hobbled by no uniform definition or understanding” of what broadband represents: “In my view, broadband is not some simple high-speed pipe. It is a convergence, a fusing, of communications power, with computer power, with content. If any one of those key pieces are missing, I don’t think you have broadband.”
TIA Vp-External Affairs & Global Policy Grant Seiffert said Powell’s comments were significant in that they “tell about the future… where we'll be in 10 years.” He said that TIA supported Powell’s contention that clarification of dynamics of broadband was necessary element of sound public policy affecting convergence of technologies: “Broadband is not dial-up service. It’s not about what we can get today. We cannot be happy with the current status quo.”
Powell said “the courts, the market and consumers are waiting” for FCC guidance in how broadband should be defined. He said those unanswered questions applied equally to broadband convergence with traditional telephony-based platforms as well as with wireless and satellite platforms. He emphasized that “one of the most confusing areas of broadband policy” was cable modem service.
“It is my view that the Commission has to try to comprehensively, and in a more uniform way, struggle with broadband as a thing unto itself,” Powell said. It’s FCC’s responsibility to provide vehicle for broadband debate, in which unanswered “questions and judgments” must be addressed before agency develops “proper” regulatory foundation, he said: “I think we have finally, in our own minds, concluded that we cannot do that effectively [in] a piecemeal [fashion] anymore; that we have do that in a proceeding that has as its focus all of those questions.”
On another topic, he said FCC’s upcoming triennial review, which will begin by year-end, will address policies governing CLEC access to incumbents’ unbundled network elements (UNEs). Although he reiterated his support for policies that bolster facilities-based competition, he assured ALTS members that FCC’s UNE proceeding “should not be viewed as an evisceration” of UNE policy. He said FCC review also must consider “whether special access tariffs are warranted.” Resolution of intercarrier compensation proceeding also is agency priority that he said would bring “greater rationality to the reciprocal compensation regime.”
Powell said that while he would continue to use bully pulpit in fighting for competitive telecom market, “what matters most is action.” He said FCC must “strive aggressively” to make quick regulatory decisions that “withstand judicial scrutiny. We must avoid do-overs.” He reiterated his call for greater enforcement authority to ensure compliance with competitive provisions of 1996 Telecom Act, and lauded House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R- Mich.) for leading congressional efforts that would allow FCC to hit violators of Act with stiffer penalties. He also revisited his recent push (CD Oct 24 p1) for creation of “redundant national network infrastructure” to avoid potential disruptions in service that were sustained during Sept. 11 terrorist attack on World Trade Center.