FCC Exploring Additional Ways of Speeding Broadband Build Out
The FCC is launching a “broadband acceleration initiative,” Chairman Julius Genachowski said Wednesday. An internal task force made up of FCC staff is to develop “concrete recommendations” on which the FCC will seek comments in a notice of inquiry to be released in April, he said. Genachowski said the staff task force is to build on work done so far by the commission’s newly reconstituted Technology Advisory Council, headed by Tom Wheeler, former CTIA and NCTA president.
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As examples of the kinds of recommendations he has in mind, Genachowski highlighted the shot clock for wireless tower zoning decisions the FCC approved in 2008, which has proven controversial with local governments. The FCC must ask “what else we need around towers to accelerate deployment,” he said. Genachowski also cited the pole attachment rulemaking approved by the commission in May.
The FCC must “reduce barriers to broadband buildout, speed up broadband build out, lower the cost of broadband build out,” Genachowski said. “This is an area where government can be a catalyst to private investment, where government can work with the private sector on smart solutions.” He called for recommendations on steps the FCC can take on its own as well as recommend to Congress or other federal agencies.
Genachowski conceded that to most people a conference on accelerating infrastructure deployment “may not seem like the most exciting topic” for discussion: “In the context of our broadband future this is what the vice president would call a ‘BFD.'"
The administration’s Jan. 18 executive order on regulation was mentioned in the text of his speech the commission released Wednesday. “The steps I have been taking at the FCC since my first day are in line with this executive order. As I informed senior staff last week, I expect the FCC to perform its responsibilities consistent with the principles in the executive order,” he said. “Today’s forum is consistent with all of these efforts to review our rules, keeping the ones that make sense, and changing the ones that don’t."
The FCC forum featured various speakers from government and industry on how to speed up broadband deployment.
Rochelle Jones, senior vice president at tw telecom, said the problem competitive carriers face is that all jurisdictions have different rules for putting fiber in the ground. “There are 31 flavors” of regulation, she said, drawing a comparison to ice cream: “You tend to pause when you're looking to construct and say am I going to get a return? … How many things am I going to have to accommodate in my business to actually serve this neighborhood?"
The actions of local governments will have huge impact on whether the FCC and federal government meet their broadband goals, agreed John Lenahan, associate general counsel at AT&T Services. “The way they regulate the use of the streets has a very direct impact, positive or negative, on your goal for national broadband deployment,” he said. “I sometimes think at the ground level those two concepts are not connected.”
"What I need right now is I need the pole attachment proceeding to give us regulatory clarity,” said Norine Lukor, senior director at NextG Networks. “Make ready timelines, pole-top access, these are essential if we really want to be able to do wireless broadband.”
The FCC needs better data to proceed effectively if it wants to speed deployment of broadband, warned Mitsi Herrera, cable & broadband administrator for Montgomery County, Md. “The commission relies on the unevaluated assertions by … stakeholders who have an interest in the outcome,” she said. “There isn’t enough independent data analysis out there.”
For electric utilities, a major problem is that carriers that want to attach broadband facilities to utility poles wait too long to reach out, said Karen Flewharty, joint use manager at Oncor Electric Delivery. “Approach the utility pole owners early in the process and we can work to better plan our resources to better support their efforts,” Flewharty said. “In the end we'd really like to see the rewards from working with the utility outweigh the rewards for working outside our requirements.”