[RTC List] Nat'l Grange Policy on Rural Broadband

[Dwight Winegar]

After last week's press conference in Eureka on the study grant for  
Rural Broadband, the subject was passed along to Bayside Grange,  
where a couple people will soon attend the state convention.  The  
following was found by Jack, our Bayside Grange Master on what the  
National Grange Policy is on this subject.     - Dwight

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Grange Letter to Federal Communications Commission Calls For  
Immediate Action On High Speed Internet Access For Rural America

In a letter to Commissioner Michael Powell, Chairman of the US  
Federal Communications Commission, National Grange Legislative  
Director Leroy Watson explained the Grange’s concerns about access to  
high speed, broadband Internet technologies in rural communities. In  
particular, Watson urged the Chairman of the FCC to begin a process  
to award unused satellite broadcast licenses to companies that will  
pledge to use those satellites to deliver affordable, high speed, two- 
way internet service to rural areas. “We strongly believe that  
universal access to broadband Internet technologies must become an  
integral part of the nation’s menu of information services in the  
21st Century just as universal mail delivery service and universal  
telephone service helped define the information technology revolution  
of the 20th Century,” Watson wrote.  Watson also reminded the FCC  
Chairman that the FCC faces an important deadline set by the  
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to assure that these  
satellites are deployed above the U. S. before 2004. If the FCC fails  
to act quickly on this important issue, American companies will not  
have time to construct and launch satellites before the deadline.  If  
that occurs, the regulatory process to allocate these satellite  
licenses will be delayed by several additional years. As a result,  
rural America will continue to be denied access to high-speed  
Internet service.

High-speed Internet service can bridge geographic barriers and  
deliver economic benefits to people in rural areas.  The challenge in  
providing these services to rural communities is the economics of  
covering vast geographic areas.  Today, land based broadband  
technologies do not meet this challenge. Last year, in a report  
published by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Commerce, fewer  
than 5% of towns of 10,000 or less were found to have either cable  
modems or DSL (high speed telephone internet) service.  Fewer than 1%  
of towns with populations of 2,500 or less had access to DSL or cable  
modems.  This is a startlingly low percentage given the fact that,  
according to the 2000 census, 22.3 million households lived in towns  
of less than 2,500 or lived in areas outside of incorporated  
communities altogether.  As a result, high-speed Internet service is  
largely unavailable today in rural communities.

The reasons for this disparity involves both technology and  
economics.  DSL technology is expensive to deploy in sparsely  
populated rural communities and is limited to short distances from  
the nearest switching station. Cable companies have been reluctant to  
run miles of expensive cable in rural areas.  Many rural residents  
still don’t have cable TV, let alone cable modems.  New terrestrial  
based fixed wireless technologies (such as microwave, wireless  
fidelity and MMDS systems) offer opportunities to reach some rural  
communities.  But distance limitations, obstructions, atmospheric  
interference, and high capital costs will make terrestrial wireless  
technology systems a patchwork solution for rural communities. For  
companies that are offering these Internet services in today’s  
market, rural customers often don’t make economic sense.

By contrast, developments in satellite based wireless technologies  
promise to deliver high speed Internet access to those customers who  
are beyond the reach of other solutions.  Satellite based, two-way  
communication systems can deliver internet services to fixed customer  
locations in the most remote areas of the nation, areas that are well  
beyond the geographic reach of competing broadband technologies.   
Satellite based broadband services are also faster and cheaper to  
install than other types of broadband, which means rural customers  
would not have to wait for the expensive and unlikely deployment of  
DSL, cable or fixed wireless systems in order to receive the benefits  
of broadband service.

A few Internet broadband services delivered via satellite are in  
operation today.  However, the current generation of satellite  
wireless Internet technology operates primarily on the same spectrum  
that satellite based television services use.   As the demand for  
both satellite based television and satellite based Internet services  
grows, the capacity to handle both streams of data using the same  
satellites will quickly become limited, increasing the costs for all  
users of this technology.  The answer to this bottleneck is to  
increase competition in the market for satellite based information  
services.  However, the same companies that currently hold and  
operate the existing satellites also control the unused satellite  
licenses in question.  As such, these companies have no incentive to  
deploy and operate new satellites in competition with their existing  
satellites.  “Competition in this market,” Watson argued, “can best  
be enhanced by reallocating of unused satellite licenses (licenses  
that have already been approved for use in providing Internet  
broadband services) to other applicants who make a commitment to  
provide high-speed Internet services to rural areas.”

During the past few years, the FCC has not aggressively exercised its  
authority to assure that satellites would be in place in all the  
orbital license locations.  While a certain amount of regulatory  
deference to the business decisions of the existing satellite license  
holders is appropriate, it is also appropriate, the Grange letter  
explained, that the FCC should now step in and move this process  
forward.  “Rural America” the Grange letter stated, “cannot afford  
the luxury of a regulatory decision making process that moves at a  
tractor’s pace in the speed-of-light Internet age.”

The Grange letter also explained that the FCC’s jurisdiction over  
these satellite licenses above the U. S. will expire in 2004 if  
satellites are not deployed—and operational–by that time. Because the  
lead-time needed to place a satellite into orbit is at least three  
years, the commitment to proceed with these projects must be made  
during the Summer of 2001. If those commitments are not made soon,  
satellites will not be operational in these locations by the ITU’s  
2004 deadline. The ITU (an agency of the United Nations) will then  
assume jurisdiction over these satellite licenses. This will cause  
the process to begin all over again and could take several more  
years, including more time for the new license holders to implement  
their business plans and deploy their satellites.  “In addition”,  
Watson noted, “because the ITU is an international regulatory agency,  
we are especially concerned that their processes and procedures will  
not adequately recognize the urgency of deploying broadband Internet  
technology in rural America.  Therefore, from a policy perspective,  
we are far more confident that the proper forum for these decisions  
should be the FCC.”

In summary, the Grange letter noted that the technology gap between  
urban communities and rural America will only grow larger unless  
concrete action is taken.  In the 21st Century, both private  
enterprises and public services in rural communities will rely on  
fast and affordable broadband Internet access to remain competitive  
in the global economy.  “We believe”, the Grange letter concluded,  
“that the only way to bridge the “digital divide” in rural America is  
to bring the maximum number of technology choices to rural  
customers.  Among those choices must be increased access to high  
speed Internet services via satellite based delivery systems.”



NATIONAL GRANGE • THE PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY
(888) 4-GRANGE • (202) 628-3507 • Fax: (202) 347-1091
1616 H Street NW • Washington, DC 20006




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