Broadband Blog Entries

I have a nifty little service I buy from my telephone provider called “teleblock.” It blocks calls originiating from certain types of phone calls unless I affirmatively allow them. Thanks to this nifty service, I am once again able to sleep late on Sundays.

I bring this up because if there is a common carriage service left in the telecom world, it’s plain old telephone service (POTS). My POTS landline is absolutely regulated as a “Title II” common carrier telephone service. But despite being a common carrier Title II telecom service, my POTS provider can offer me a very useful tool for limiting annoying calls.

I just got back from a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing on the future of the Internet. Much was said on both sides of the panelist table, so I’ll just take a moment to hit some highlights: competition and innovation, media consolidation and content, and FCC authority. One disclaimer: this summary represents (of course) how I interpreted the statements at the hearing. Where I can, I’ve included timestamps into the video; if you want more detail, watch the hearing direct from the Senate’s web site. Also, check out our press release.

The ghost of Col. Nathan Jessep hovered over the proceedings at Stanford University yesterday (April 17) as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wound up its second hearing on the bad behavior of network owners.

Jessep was most famously played by Jack Nicholson in the movie, A Few Good Men. At the movie’s penultimate moment, the Marine colonel barks out from the witness chair in a courtroom to Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise), who says he wants the truth – “You can’t handle the truth.”

The question now for the FCC is the same – can the Commission handle the truth?

Yesterday, the FCC took a field trip to the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. There it heard from two panels of experts and policy shapers on the issue of network management and more broadly net neutrality. If you didn’t see it, or listen to the FCC’s stream of it, thankfully, it’s been video recorded and put on the web…

Panel I: Network Management and Consumer Expectations

Professor Lessig presented one of his illustrative keynotes at the start, and apparently he recorded the live audio and dubbed it to the video later:

Update: The Kentucky State Legislature adjourned early Wed. (April 16) without voting to override any of Gov. Steve Beshear’s vetoes, including Connect Kentucky’s two-year, $2.4 million budget.

The original story is below:

While Connected Nation is expanding around the country, it hit a big snag at home.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) Monday let the world know what his administration thinks of the controversial Connect Kentucky program. He vetoed $2.4 million in funds for the organization, which was founded under his predecessor, Republican Ernie Fletcher. Background on the program is here.

Connect had tried to obtain a 26 percent increase in funding over the last budget cycle, and Beshear wasn’t going to let them have it at a time when there were severe budget cuts all over the state.

Today, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin announced at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) conference that he is circulating an order at the FCC that would dismiss the petition (pdf) filed by Skype that sought an FCC ruling requiring a wireless network provider to allow the use of any non-harmful device and application on its network.

The rationale behind this decision is one we have heard many times over the past few months: Verizon announced that they are going to be open to third party devices and applications; the FCC already has required the C block of the 700 MHz spectrum recently auctioned to be open (again, controlled by Verizon); the wireless industry is headed in the direction of openness, etc. It’s done, so why do we need a ruling?

Comcast has sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin clarifying last week’s announcement that they were in discussions with BitTorrent, Inc. about how to improve Comcast’s network management. In short: Comcast has “admitted” nothing, they do not “block” applications or “discriminate,” and the old system they say they will be replacing is still completely legitimate. It seems that Comcast thinks that the FCC needs to keep on investigating the petition as much as we do.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Comcast and BitTorrent, Inc. are now working together to “collaborate on ways to run BitTorrent’s technology more smoothly on Comcast’s broadband network, and allow Comcast to transport video files more effectively over its own network.” While we applaud application developers and network operators getting together to figure out how to improve the efficiency of the Internet, this changes nothing about the issues raised in the petitions on network management; the FCC must still act quickly to ensure that its four principles for broadband service have real meaning and that consumers are protected.

The majority of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was feeling pretty good about its view of the broadband world at the Commission meeting March 19. The Commission released not only its latest statistics on “high-speed” broadband access, but also approved a report to Congress showing that broadband was being deployed in a “reasonable and timely fashion” as the Telecom Act of 1996 requires.

The House Commerce committee investigation of the FCC continues. According to the Washington Post, a detailed letter signed by Rep. Dingell has gone out to the FCC asking for a host of documents that (among other things) relate to “management practices that may adversely affect the Commission’s ability both to discharge effectively its statutory duties and to guard against waste, fraud, and abuse.” This is serious - business as usual at the Commission must be under severe pressure, and the idea of real structural reform of the Commission (and perhaps a new telecommunications act) can now be talked about with some confidence. This won’t happen now, but it could be happening a year from now.