<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<br>
Aloha Folks -<br>
<br>
Don't hold your breath, but here's a report on the U.S. Senate hearing
by Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship yesterday that
offers some perspective for our State's Broadband Task Force efforts.<br>
<pre wrap="">____________________________________________
Where is Our National Broadband, Senate Asks
ARTICLE DATE: 09.26.07 PCMAG.com
By Chloe Albanesius
Two Democratic FCC commissioners on Wednesday called for a national
broadband summit to discuss the U.S. high-speed Internet penetration
rate, blaming its slow rollout on a lack of cohesive data and a
reliance on marketplace conditions rather than government-sponsored
initiatives.
"The mindset that we have … to work under [at the FCC] is 'don't
worry about it, the marketplace will take care of this,'" said FCC
Commissioner Michael Copps. "While we all revere the marketplace,
there are some things that cannot get done by themselves."
"We have consolidation, lack of competition, … prices are shooting
up, there are no alternatives for small businesses," said
Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. "One way to start is a summit on
broadband" that would include the public and private sectors,
Congress, the executive branch, agencies like the FCC, he said.
Copps and Adelstein appeared before the Senate Small Business
Committee to discuss how improved Internet access would help small
businesses. It was convened by Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-
Mass., who slammed the White House for not following through on its
2004 pledge to have universal broadband by the end of 2007. "You need
tax credits, you need grants, you need the universal service fund,"
Adelstein said. "You need the FCC to promote incentive policies and
opportunities to invest."
President Bush "has yet to put policies in place that will realize
this goal," Kerry said.
White House support is of utmost importance, Copps said. "I think a
speech from on high saying that this is the infrastructure challenge
of the 21st century," he said. "A goal is always welcome, but it has
to be accompanied by a strategy and informed tactics."
One of those tactics should be a different regulatory strategy,
according to the commissioners. The current regulatory structure is
written for a telecom industry ruled by competing Bell telephone
companies, a scenario that no longer exists, Copps said.
A major roadblock to a comprehensive overhaul is lack of usable data.
"Our current efforts are woefully out-of-date and out-of-whack,"
Copps said. "We need a more credible definition of speed [than the
current 200 kilobits per second for broadband] and more granular
measures of deployment, as well as to start gathering data on price
and the experience of other nations."
Current FCC broadband maps are "a disgrace," Adelstein said.
He pointed to a small business owner in Chicago who recently mapped
the city's broadband coverage using publicly available data providers
have on their Web sites. If he can create these maps, "why can't the
federal government do it?" Adelstein asked.
Adelstein said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who was not present, "is
committed to ensuring we get better data."
Data collection and broadband rollout has had some success at the
state level with programs like ConnectKentucky and ConnectMaine.
Copps acknowledged that the government has probably "federalized too
much" in the telecom industry and "taken away authority from the
states."
Nonetheless, the federal government should be able to handle data
collection, he said. "Getting nationwide data on broadband is a
perfectly legitimate exercise for the FCC," Copps said. "It's
something we should have done a long time ago."
Adelstein praised cities like Fort Wayne, Ind. for their broadband
efforts, "but what does that mean for Gary or South Bend?" he asked.
"Can't we have ConnectAmerica?"
Sen. Kerry and the committee's ranking Republican, Olympia Snowe of
Maine, voiced support for the broadband summit.
"Each branch of government has to understand exactly what it's going
to require through timelines and benchmarks," Snowe said. "There
should be a national broadband strategy."
Kerry echoed that sentiment in a recent blog post (<a href="http://">http://</a>
<a href="http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/?p=218">www.savetheinternet.com/blog/?p=218</a>) on FreePress.org.
Kerry also expressed an interest in calling the two Republican FCC
commissioners and Chairman Martin before his panel to discuss the
topic. An inquiry to Kerry's press office as to whether they had not
been invited or simply could not attend Wednesday's hearing was not
answered by press time.
____________________________________________
Sean McLaughlin
Executive Director
Access Humboldt
P.O. Box 157, Eureka, CA 95502
tel: 707-476-1798
dir: 707-476-2873
fax: 707-476-1702
cel: 707-616-2381
e: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:seanm@accesshumboldt.net">seanm@accesshumboldt.net</a>
web: accesshumboldt.net
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression;
this right includes freedom to hold opinions without
interference and to seek, receive and impart information
and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 (UN, 1948)
</pre>
<br>
</body>
</html>