Broadband Stimulus — In Trouble Already?

The past couple of weeks has seen some bad news regarding expanding broadband in this country. Major carriers have washed their hands of the stimulus plan and its funds. Qwest, AT&T, Verizon and Comcast say they will not be participating due to requirements that come with the funds. Sean Buckley of Fierce Telecom has a good take here.

The NTIA and USDA have said after the first round of grants they may be open to changes, and the FCC is fighting back on the PR front. They’ve launched their own blog — Blogband, kinda catchy I must say — and started a Twitter stream, http://twitter.com/fccdotgov. It’s no surprise that Genachowski seems to “get” social media channels, having been an Obama pal at Harvard.

So amidst the posturing, where is the truth about the stimulus effort to date? Are the restrictions around net neutrality and definitions of “underserved” areas onerous, or do the carriers just not want to play? To get a ground level view of the debate, we spoke with a long-time telco exec who will have to stay anonymous for the purposes of this blog post. We’ll call him “Telecom Tom.”

Tom has been with a provider serving primarily rural areas for almost 20 years. He definitely feels there are problems with the stimulus grants as currently designed. “Program administrators want shovel-ready projects, and it doesn’t work that way,” Tom said. “Many of these efforts are multi-year projects that can’t be completed in a two-year time frame. You can’t just throw federal dollars at local and municipal problems and make them go away.”

Another issue is getting the right permits to begin work. “Some departments don’t have the people or specialists to process permits,” Tom shared. “To process them we need to hire these people, and the stimulus funding does not address these obstacles.”

Tom ended by saying plan administrators need to be more open to feedback from experts who have experience connecting rural communities – admittedly not a surprising position for him to take.

There will be many chapters to this story. NTIA and USDA have already said they will review some of the provisions, and we still have 179 days and counting to the unveiling of the FCC’s national broadband plan. There’s time for compromise on both sides.  But it’s hard to be encouraged with how the stimulus effort has progressed to date.

National Broadband Update — the Path Starts to Unfold

This month the country took the first steps down a very important road – the expansion of broadband access to all Americans. Included in the Obama Administration’s $787 billion stimulus package is $7.2 billion for grants and loans designed to expand broadband access in the United States. For the first time our government has, in effect, said that broadband access is a “right” and is using substantial public funds to make it happen.

So here are the basics. The bulk of the funds — $4.7 billion – will be distributed through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and the rest through the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) program out of the Dept. of Agriculture. The FCC has launched www.broadband.gov and has committed to having a national broadband policy by next spring. The format for applications has been set (NOFA in DC speak) and applications are being solicited. Let the expansion begin!

Of course, it isn’t that simple. Step one is understanding exactly what all the terms used by the FCC actually mean when it comes to underserved areas. A blog post from Tellabs, a major telecom equipment manufacturer, has a good glossary here.

Another wrinkle — there is no map that shows exactly the extent of broadband availability today. In fact the stimulus dollars set aside $350 million for the purpose of creating such a map. But existing service providers have been fighting against releasing detailed information, claiming such info is proprietary.

And there may be drawbacks to casting too wide a net in an attempt to be transparent and inclusive. Blair Levin, former chief of staff to the FCC under Commissioner Reed Hundt and now point man for broadband at the agency, is none to impressed with the quality of public comments to date. He told this to Reuters and some other news outlets. And the NTIA is asking for applicants to volunteer as reviewers for broadband funding — isn’t some kind of expertise required?

So the story is just starting to be written, and the devil is most certainly in the details. But hey, just last year the FCC was defining broadband as anything over 200 kpbs! Lots of progress has been made, billions have been made available and we seem to be moving in the right direction. We should all watch carefully how this noble experiment unfolds.

Telecom Industry Asks — Can We Get Real About Broadband?

Today Strategic client Tellabs released some interesting survey data. Tellabs used the subscription lists of leading trade publications to ask telecom professionals about broadband — what the definition of broadband should be, and the state of availability in the United States. Over 450 respondents shared some very strong opinions on this important issue.

There are 14 countries that get broadband to a higher percentage of their citizens than the U.S. I get the fact we’re a larger country, and its tougher for us than say a Korea or a Denmark. But can’t we do better? Some of the tools seem to be there already — for example, every American already pays a fee on their monthly bill (Universal Access Fund) to subsidize phones lines to rural areas. It’s 2008 — can’t we take that money and switch it from voice to broadband?

Nine out of ten telecom professionals think the FCC definition of broadband isn’t true. Industry pros are very concerned about the gap in broadband availability in this country, and they want something done about it. Some percentages from the survey:

94% think the current FCC definition of 200/kbs isn’t a true broadband experience

79% think where you live should not dictate availability

81% think the government should use some of the Universal Service Fund to expand broadband availability in rural areas

89% think lack of broadband hurts an person’s education, productivity and employment opportunities

Here’s a link to the release with full results: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080320/aqth501.html?.v=3

All this is especially topical in light of the FCC putting out its semi-annual broadband access numbers yesterday. According to the FCC, over 99% of zip codes have at least one broadband provider! And some zip codes have 8 or 9 different providers to choose from! I don’t know about you, but I’ve never lived in any of those zip codes.

So apparently, all is well when it comes to broadband in this country. This doesn’t seem to pass the smell test to me. Here’s a link to the FCC release yesterday: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-280904A1.doc

Does anyone happen to live in one of these zip codes, and have another take? Check out Drew Clark’s site, www.broadbandcensus.com. Drew has started this organization precisely to get a more accurate picture of what broadband availability really is out there from actual end users.

Care to take the survey yourself? Here’s a link to the same survey taken by the industry folks. Please click HERE and add your voice to the debate. If there are enough respondents, I’ll be happy to post the results in a couple of weeks.

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Google’s Checkbook Leads to Open Access Opportunity?

Brian Dolan over at FierceWireless wrote a very interesting editorial today.

Now I can get as tired as the next guy with the media’s preoccupation with the big G. But I think Brian is on to something. He posits that rather than actually wanting to win any of the spectrum in the FCC auction, Google is participating to ensure that the C block bidding reaches the reserve price of $4.6B, which triggers the open access provisions. Similarly, Google is now reported to be part of a joint venture that Sprint and Clearwire will tap to help finance a nationwide WiMAX network. 

Very clever — don’t let constructing a wireless network distract from the core focus of search, but use some billions to ensure an open source environment develops in which the company thinks they will prosper. (Although Nokia purchasing Trolltech this week clearly shows they will have stiff competition)

I’d wager these stories are no accident, and the folks inside the Googleplex are promoting this viewpoint. It dovetails so nice with Google’s “do no evil” mantra.

Article here.