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53 Areas of Harm?
At a superficial level, it would appear that the Comcast/Time-Warner businesses wouldn’t remove competition as they generally serve non-overlapping geographic areas. Additionally, Comcast would divest and swap systems with Charter to maintain less than 30% nationwide market share in the Pay-TV market. The reality is that there are different market segments, beyond distribution of pay-TV,…
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The Cablization of the Internet
Unintended consequences are probably the worst thing about laws and regulations. It’s difficult to predict the reactions from both individuals and corporations to outwit a new rule. Patrick Knorr, EVP of Business Services and IP Technology for Wave Broadband, suggests that that one of the unintended, potential consequences of Title II regulation of broadband providers…
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Uncertainty Filled the Air
Uncertainty filled the air at the 2015 ACA Summit this week in Washington D.C. Precursor, LLC president, Scott Cleland, summed up the concerns of many at this conference of independent broadband operators with his analogy of how to boil a live frog. Using that analogy, he suggested the FCC’s vote on Title II regulation of the…
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The Chicken & Egg Spectrum Auction
Replace the term chicken with “reverse auction” and egg with “forward auction” and the result would be a classic conundrum updated to 21st century FCC-speak. Throw in the term “repacking“, as in moving the broadcasters who relinquish their spectrum into common broadcast channels outside the 600 MHz band, and, suddenly, it is a next generation…
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Competing on a Two-Way Basis
Jeff Leslie of ITS Fiber and ITS Telecom, a last-mile provider of broadband and data center services in south central Florida, explains the importance of the just enacted modification to NECA Tariff #5 that will allow rural carriers to competitively price symmetric services on their fiber to the home networks. ITS Telecom is an incumbent LEC that serves…
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“Rural America Is a Big Part of America” #Summit21
It’s one thing to talk about or even see pictures of rural America, but it doesn’t compare to experiencing it first hand. Last April at the ACA 2014 Convention, I had a chance to catch up with the lone Representative from the very rural state of Vermont. Interspersed in the above interview with Representative (D-VT) Peter Welch are some images captured…
