Douglas Meredith of JSI outlines eight concerns he has with the National Broadband Plan in this video interview filmed at the OPASTCO 2010 Conference. Citing FTTH Council figures, he suggests that the cost figures for getting to the “unserved” may not be as big investment as indicated in the plan. He recommends that the FCC look at the programs that have been successful in building telecom in rural areas and use those as a model for the unserved areas, while not forgetting that the existing high cost areas will continue to need support.
One outcome of the FCC's National Broadband Plan has been the uniting of the national associations in Washington that represent independent telcos. In this brief interview with Derrick Owens, Director of Government Affairs for the Western Telecom Alliance, discusses the importance of having a unified front as far as representing the viewpoints of the carriers that server rural America. Owens was on an insightful panel that discussed the FCC’s National Broadband Plan. Unfortunately, Chairman Julius Genachowski did not stay to listen to that panel.
A 25:1 ratio is what John Rose, president of OPASTCO, points out is the difference between what the National Broadband Plan calls for between urban and rural areas. The objective for 2020 is to have at least 100 million homes at 100 Mb/s. Rose points out that the other 15 to 30 million rural homes would have a different broadband standard of 4 Mb/s. Rose is concerned that this definition of broadband could relegate rural areas to the equivalent of a 60 Kb/s circuit in today’s terms.
The FCC did point out, in panels at the OPASTCO 2010 Summer Convention, that the four Mb/s goal is today’s number, it represents throughput and not peak and that this goal will change over time. The question is why didn’t the FCC explicitly state the objective for rural broadband for the year 2020 in the Natonal Broadband Report?
A highlight of the OPASTCO 2010 Summer Convention was the keynote speech of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. ViodiTV caught up with Chairman Genachowski after his speech and he elaborated on the importance of a robust broadband infrastructure to creating a vibrant rural economy, which in turn benefits the urban economy. We also briefly discussed the importance of community-based, telecommunications companies in the development of the rural broadband infrastructure.
To read the full text of the speech he gave to OPASTCO, where he outlined the five principles for Universal Service Reform, please click here. It is unfortunate, that he wasn't able to stay to hear the next panel at OPASTCO, which featured representatives from NTCA (National Telecommunications Cooperative Association), WTA (Western Telecom Alliance), MTA (Minnesota Telecom Alliance) and the TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association) and was moderated by John Rose. The common theme of the panel was that the industry needs to continue to work together to provide data and share its message to both the FCC, as well as legislators.
The FCC’s broadband plan is a comprehensive document that addresses, at a high level, all of the segments of the economy that intersect with the Internet. In this video interview, filmed at the 2010 Broadband Properties Summit in Dallas, Galen Updike, Telecommunications Development Manager for the State of Arizona and Director of the RTC, discusses the importance of having regional and state input to make sure the implementation of the plan reflects the geographic and demographic differences between regions.
