BUSH TOUTS EFFORTS TO PROMOTE BROADBAND

In an effort to show his administration is serious about broadband deployment, President Bush signed an executive memorandum Mon. aimed at streamlining access to federal land. The executive memorandum will put into effect recommendations of a federal right-of-way working group coordinated by NTIA. In a speech, Bush listed several ways he’s promoting broadband deployment in working toward his stated goal of universal access by 2007, but Senate Democrats took issue with his claims.

“I'm talking about broadband technology to every corner of our country by the year 2007, with competition shortly thereafter,” Bush said Mon. at the American Assn. of Community Colleges Convention in Minneapolis. He first set that goal in March (CD March 29 p4), but in Minn. he listed some of the ways the Administration intends to meet the goal: (1) Streamline federal rights-of-way permits. He said it “makes sense” to “increase access to federal land for fiber optic cables and transmission towers.” “One sure way to hold things up is that the federal lands say, you can’t build on us.” (2) Promote new technology development. Praising broadband-over-power-line (BPL) technology, he said “[p]ower lines were for electricity; power lines can be used for broadband technology. So the technical standards need to be changed to encourage that.” (3) Spectrum reform. He didn’t provide many details in his speech, but in a 14-page summary issued by the White House, NTIA’s efforts to free up more spectrum for wireless broadband were cited. He did say wireless was a solution for remote areas such as his home in Crawford, Tex. (4) Avoid taxation. To ensure broadband is affordable, he said, “[w]e must not tax broadband access. If you want broadband access throughout the country, Congress must ban tax on access.”

Many of the issues are already being addressed at various federal agencies, and Congress Mon. held a procedural vote on legislation to permanently ban Internet access taxes (see separate story, this issue). NTIA 2 years ago freed up 90 MHz of spectrum for wireless broadband. The FCC has begun looking at ways to help the BPL industry. Bush praised the FCC and said he supports all of their broadband-related efforts. Specifically, he praised “Chairman Michael Powell, under his leadership, his decision to eliminate burdensome regulations on new broadband networks availability to homes.” Bush said Powell was “clearing out the underbrush of regulation, and we'll get the spread of broadband technology, and America will be better for it.” In its materials supporting Bush’s speech, the White House said it supports the FCC’s decision “to free fiber-to-the-home investments from legacy regulations.”

NTIA released a federal ROW working group paper tied to Bush’s executive memorandum. The 44-page report calls timely and cost-effective access to federal ROW “a key to widespread broadband deployment” and sets forth several goals: (1) A web portal on NTIA’s site within 3 months providing information for industry. (2) Updated web sites for all involved federal agencies within 6 months. (3) Federal agencies no later than Aug. will hold pre-application meetings with ROW applicants to help ensure a smooth application process. (4) Agencies by Dec. will be responding to applications within 30 days. The report also outlines several ways to standardize and simplify cost recovery, fees and rental payments. One year from now each agency will submit a report to the Office of Management & Budget on its progress. Agencies involved in the working group included NTIA and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration at the Dept. of Commerce; the Departments. of Agriculture, Defense, Interior, and Transportation; the U.S. General Services Administration.

Bush’s speech occurred in a state that was barely won in 2000 by then-Vice President Gore and is considered a key 2004 swing state. The speech also came mere days after several Democratic senators wrote Bush criticizing his broadband policy. Sens. Boxer (D-Cal.) and Wyden (D-Ore.) were joined by 18 other senators in the letter, which agreed with Bush’s goal of universal broadband access by 2007. “However, simply stating a goal is not enough,” they wrote: “Without aggressive and concrete action, we are concerned that the goal will not be met.” Among the Democratic senators’ criticisms was the performance of the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) in issuing rural broadband loans. While Congress has authorized $2 billion, they said, RUS “has only distributed about $132 million in funding.” Rather than looking to streamline loan processing, they wrote, “RUS has created hurdles in the loan application process.”

The Democratic senators also faulted Bush for not pushing legislation to offer tax credits for rural broadband deployment. They said they supported legislation by Sen. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), S-905, that has 17 cosponsors, including 3 Republicans. A House bill by House Ways & Means committee member English (R-Pa.) has 150 cosponsors. But they told Bush that “you have not included any comparable proposal in any of your budgets or tax cut packages. Nor have you exercised vocal leadership on regulatory, tax, or other issues relating to broadband.

There was one other point of disagreement between the Democrats and Bush. The Democratic senators said “the United States has slipped to 11th in the world in broadband use.” Bush said “we rank 10th amongst the industrialized world in broadband technology and its availability. That’s not good enough for America. Tenth is 10 spots too low as far as I'm concerned.” Neither cited a source for the U.S. ranking.

USTA supported Bush’s comments. Pres. Walter McCormick in a statement said that whether it’s “freeing companies from legacy rules or clearing regulatory hurdles for new approaches, the more companies can invest and compete vigorously and freely, the more consumers will benefit from the latest innovations and from real consumer choice.” Telecom Industry Assn. Pres. Matthew Flanigan said “TIA has been calling for a national broadband strategy for many years now. This includes support of the policies the president outlined today.” But Consumers Union Public Policy Dir. Gene Kimmelman said Bush failed to address a “hidden tax” resulting from cable companies requiring separate payments for keeping their earlier ISP.

Bush said “broadband has tripled since 2000 from 7 million subscriber lines to 24 million.” He said that’s “way short of the goal for 2007,” although his goal calls for universal access to broadband, not a set number of actual subscribers. To promote broadband, he said “a proper role for the government is to clear regulatory hurdles so those who are going to make investments do so. Broadband is going to spread because it’s going to make sense for private sector companies to spread it so long as the regulatory burden is reduced -- in other words, so long as policy at the government level encourages people to invest, not discourages investment.”

White House spokesman Scott McClellan briefed reporters about Bush’s broadband announcements prior to the speech aboard Air Force One on the way to Minneapolis. He then fielded 21 questions from reporters, according to a transcript, with none of them addressing broadband.