It says something about the messed up world of telecom today that the “Connect America Fund” the FCC will vote on tomorrow has become the “what the heck are we going to do about IP-based interconnection” proceeding. In particular, the rather high-profile spat between AT&T and Comcast (and other cable companies) over access charges illustrates exactly the kind of cosmic cluster#@$! we predicted would happen if the FCC failed to classify broadband as a Title II telecom service.

Approximately 93 million Americans either can’t afford broadband or don’t even have access to it in their area (14-24 million Americans). This problem, often referred to as the “digital divide,” prevents millions of Americans in rural areas or with low incomes from participating in a wealth of online culture and from accessing vital resources like online newspapers, directories, and job listings – many of which are leaving the paper world behind.

Public Knowledge’s Position

Broadband has become a necessity for social, political, and economic engagement. As such, Public Knowledge believes that broadband should be treated like the vital communication tool it is and that we should be working towards building a network infrastructure that we can be proud of, just as we were proud of the electric grid and the landline telephone network.

Hey everyone, remember back at the end of last year when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted the better-than-nothing-but-still-painfully-disappointing Network Neutrality rules? Well, after a long and winding road, which included bouncing back and forth between the FCC and the Office of Management and Budget a few times and a premature challenge by Verizon, the rules were finally published in the Federal Register today. So without getting into the merits, here is what to expect procedurally.

Congressional Review Act

I suppose I am really a telecom lawyer at heart. My reaction to the news that the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police shut down cellphone networks in a number of stations on August 11 had nothing to do with democracy, the First Amendment, Tahrir Square, etc. With all deference to the importance of these concerns, my reaction was WHAT DO YOU MEAN THESE IDIOTS MESSED WITH THE PHONE SYSTEM? From my perspective, and the perspective of traditional telecom law, BART could just as well have turned off the local central office and all this chatter about whether or not BART is a public forum is just a distraction.

On today's podcast, we discuss the time traveling spectrum bill, monkey copyright, Comcast running into trouble with data caps, and updates from the Creators Freedom Project.  We also discuss Newport Television's attempt to silence criticism from Free Press by sending them a bogus DMCA takedown notice with Free Press Policy Counsel Corie Wright.

Creators' Freedom Project Related Events:

Working with Outside the Box Music, we're putting on our next "Rock Your Net" Internet marketing series, which starts August 4th in Nashville, TN. For more details, go here.

Parachute Musical and Ocean Is Theory, two bands that CFP is working with have a show in DC on Saturday, July 23 at DC9. More details on the bands' websites, download a free track from both bands here.

The 1861 Project is having its Album Release party next Tues, July 19 @ 7PM at Nashville's Basement. To RSVP, check out this Facebook Event.

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The story of Andre Vrignaud may well end up being the template for the soon-to-be-popular genre of “I just hit my data cap and now I cannot access the internet” stories.  The long version is here, but the short version is that Vrignaud got a call from his ISP Comcast last month.  The call informed him that he had hit his 250 GB monthly data cap.  He wasn’t really sure why (he has roommates, they all stream movies and music regularly) but he chalked it up to one of those things.

This month he got another call from Comcast telling him he hit his cap again.  Because this was the second time, Comcast informed him that they were cutting off his internet access for a year.

On today's podcast, we walk through the agreement on online copyright infringement between ISPs and content holders, the data portability spat between Facebook and Google, and get a primer on using music on the campaign trail.  We also discuss the benefits and challenges of building local community networks with Christopher Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self Reliance and muninetworks.org.

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"Special Access" is one of those fun telecom terms that makes no sense to those outside of telecom. Briefly, it's the rate that a regulated incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC), like AT&T, charges for certain non-residential telecom services. As you can see, even my attempt to describe in one sentence without jargon failed, that's how complicated this is. However, like many very complicated things, Special Access is one of the important ingredients that goes into how much people pay for phone and broadband service. You can find a five minute video of me explaining Special Access and why everyone needs to care about it here.

So with 2010 finished and 2011 now thoroughly under way, it’s time to play Prognosticate Me! Mind you, anyone can predict “spectrum will remain a focus” and “USF reform will loom large.” The fun lies in trying to pick the surprises. So I have selected 3 potential “black swans” for 2011. The term comes from Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book about the high impact of low probability events.

In this week's podcast, we talk Net Neutrality, the various troubles of Comcast, PK's Creator's Freedom Project, and interview Jane Litte about her project lostbooksales.com that tracks lost ebook sales due to restrictive licensing or incompatibility.

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