Walter McCormick on C-SPAN’s The Communicators February 29th, 2008

Tomorrow at 6:30pm EST, USTelecom President and CEO Walter B. McCormick Jr. will appear on C-SPAN’s The Communicators, a weekly interview series that features the leaders and newsmakers who are shaping our digital future. Walter will talk about how broadband deployment and adoption is dramatically changing how consumers live as well as the need for forward-looking public policies that encourage investment and innovation in the dynamic communications sector. If you miss it tomorrow, the show will also air Monday, March 3 on C-SPAN2 at 8am and 8pm EST. The show will also be archived on the C-SPAN website after airing.

How Broadband Enhances Public Safety in Your Community February 28th, 2008

I listened to yesterday’s webinar that looked at the tremendous strides Ft. Wayne, Ind., has made in improving economic development, public safety, health care and education through a comprehensive program to provide high-speed broadband to a metropolitan area of 250,000 people. It was a fascinating look at how one city is successfully using broadband to leverage existing resources to improve city operations.

Former Mayor Graham Richard explained how, when taking office in 2000, he formed a team dedicated to incorporating technology into the community’s public safety programs. Early on, Graham recalled, the mandate for broadband was clear. “What can we do with technology to make sure that we’re using every available hour of every police officer in a particular and in an effective way?” he said.

Richard, joined by Brent Johnson, director of the Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana, said the city aimed for a more mobile police force that “could get back to a strong community policing model.” In a few short years, this task force has created a highly mobile and efficient first responder community that is using high-speed broadband for crime fighting and advanced training. The centerpiece of this strategy is the Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana, a $27 million training facility designed to “radically improve the collaborative efforts of 5,000 first responders” in the Ft. Wayne area. The academy is placing a strong focus on broadband technology and on-line learning which will be made available to police, fire and EMS personnel throughout the region and the state using a new broadband network.

The Academy has also partnered with a wide range of local educational organizations to offer public safety related degree programs. These partnerships will help develop an educational infrastructure to meet challenges facing public safety and government officials.

Meanwhile, crime in the Ft. Wayne area has declined to the lowest level in 27 years—and last year alone, Ft. Wayne experienced a 5.5 percent decline.

Richard also touted the Firehouse College, a program that allows firefighters to connect with online educational resources while they are in-between response calls. By educating the firefighters and leveraging their time with training, the community is creating a better prepared and efficient group of first responders. Firehouse College ensures that not only do firefighters get the right training but—with broadband—they can remain in their station houses during training so they can readily respond to emergencies.

To watch an archived version of the webinar click here.

[Cross-posted at NextGenWeb.org]

Muni Wi-Fi Bill Would Chill Private Investment February 27th, 2008

Yesterday, USTelecom’s Walter McCormick, along with the heads of several other associations, sent a letter to the leadership of the House Telecom & Internet Subcommittee about Chairman Markey’s (D - Mass.) “Wireless Consumer Protection and Community Broadband Empowerment Act of 2008” (PDF). Title II of the bill, “Community Broadband Empowerment,” would keep states and localities from passing laws preventing broadband service provision by public entities, including municipalities.

In opposing that provision, the letter states:

[F]ederal municipal broadband legislation would chill private investment in existing and future broadband networks. This ultimately leads to less, not more, broadband deployment as the investment risk for private entities is unnecessarily increased and private capital is displaced with public funds, needlessly burdening taxpayers. Additionally, federal municipal broadband legislation encourages cherry picking the easier to serve areas within town limits, diminishing the feasibility of broadband service in the more costly to serve outlying areas.

As the letter points out, municipal broadband projects around the country—San Francisco, Houston, New Orleans, Chicago, Philadelphia—are being abandoned, privatized, or substantially scaled back; that’s an expensive lesson for a municipality to learn. The letter also notes that 14 states already regulate the ability of municipalities to provide broadband with public funds.

The goal of wider availability of broadband is certainly a good one, but recent history has shown that municipal broadband projects just might not be the best way to go, especially as networking technologies continue to evolve. Congress should continue to work with broadband providers to improve deployment and availability through things like the RUS broadband loan program and public-private partnerships such as ConnectKentucky.

USTelecom Webinar Tomorrow! February 26th, 2008

When former Ft. Wayne, Indiana Mayor Graham Richard took office in 2000, he formed a team dedicated to incorporating technology into the community’s public safety programs. In a few short years, this task force has created a highly mobile and efficient first responder community.

Join Mayor Richard and Brent Johnson, director of the Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana, for a USTelecom webinar tomorrow at 11am. The panelists will describe how broadband access in Ft. Wayne has led to a series of public safety initiatives that have lowered crime in the Ft. Wayne area to the lowest level in 27 years, and make suggestions on how similar initiatives can help first responders in your region. Register now!

USTelecom Vidcast: Continuing NARUC Coverage February 25th, 2008

After a long week at NARUC, USTelecom’s Robert Mayer had a lot to say on the topics of broadband, pole attachments, and forbearance.

Next week, we’ll have more video coverage of NARUC, including highlights from presentations by USTelecom’s Walter McCormick and Regina Hopper.

FCC En Banc Meeting Brings Network Management Front and Center February 25th, 2008

Today, the FCC held its en banc meeting in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The focus of the hearing was the agency’s network management proceeding, and much of the discussion focused on the net regulation bill recently introduced in the House by Rep. Ed Markey (D - Mass.), chair of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. Markey told the audience and commissioners that the FCC should oversee network management practices to ensure that they are employed only as a temporary solution until bandwidth catches up with demand and to be sure that they are “reasonable” and “non-discriminatory.” Others at the FCC meeting understood the need for traffic management, suggesting that rather than regulating management practices, Congress and the FCC should encourage more robust competition in broadband networks. Many, including FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Vuze CEO Gilles BianRosa, also suggested that transparency in traffic management practices would be valuable to consumers.

With respect to Rep. Markey’s remarks, however, he’s got it wrong. In spite of the substantial investment network operators are making—$70 billion dollars in North America in 2007—higher capacity alone can’t mitigate the need for network management, just like wider streets don’t mitigate the need for stop lights or traffic laws.

Just consider the transition from dial-up to broadband: sure, bandwidth increased exponentially, but that new bandwidth brought with it new applications, like video, VoIP, online gaming, file-sharing, and more. Bigger, better, faster broadband networks will lead to new innovation in applications that will soak up that capacity; that’s a good thing for consumers, who will have an array of new content and applications to choose from, but those networks will need to be managed to operate at peak performance.

Congress and the FCC certainly can’t forsee what management practices will be necessary, efficient, effective, and satisfactory to consumers; if they could, they’d be making a pretty penny running networks of their own! The lasting solutions will emerge from industry cooperation, through industry forums and Internet standards bodies, and by communication between ISPs and app producers; content providers and service providers are already actively working together to improve the network efficiency of P2P protocols to reduce network congestion. Continuing that kind of inter-industry collaboration will lead to the most lasting, effective solutions; regulation of the Internet, on the other hand, will chill investment and could very well stand in the way of traffic management solutions that make the Internet work better for all of us.

Broadband takes Center Stage at NARUC February 19th, 2008

Broadband was definitely the theme of the afternoon for the telecom folks at NARUC’s winter meeting in D.C. today. USTelecom President and CEO Walter B. McCormick Jr. addressed the Telecom Committee and laid out the potential that broadband offers to consumers. He used some interesting comparisons to show the tremendous financial commitment that service providers have made to deploy broadband. While North American service providers invested nearly $70 billion in communications infrastructure last year alone, when President Kennedy vowed to put a man on the moon, the U.S. spent approximately $10 billion a year (in today’s dollars) in public funds to make that “giant leap for mankind” and complete six Apollo missions. When President Eisenhower set to build a new interstate highway system for the nation, the U.S. spent approximately $20 billion annually over 25 years. These were significant expenses to achieve major objectives for the nation. And today, broadband service providers have made an even larger commitment to deploy broadband across the nation to reach yet another critical goal.

Later in the afternoon, a panel discussion also looked at the benefits of broadband. USTelecom Executive Vice President Regina Hopper showed all that NextGenWeb.org, the association’s broadband site, has to offer. Appearing with Regina on the panel were Graham Richard, former mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana, who explained how the city used broadband to improve public safety and education; Ray Ramsey, CEO of One Economy, who talked about the group’s efforts to deploy broadband and encourage adoption in low-income, urban areas; and Michelle Robinson from Verizon, who highlighted the educational resources available at the company’s ThinkFinity.org.

Stay tuned for an upcoming vidcast on all of the NARUC highlights.

NARUC Comes to Washington, DC February 15th, 2008

Next week, February 17 – 20, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners will host its winter committee meetings in Washington, DC. The commissioners will be considering a number of resolutions, including forbearance, third-party verification (also known as “slamming”), and pole attachments. Jon Banks, senior vice president for law and policy at USTelecom, will speak on a panel Monday morning on the topic of pole attachments and the need for intermodal parity.On Tuesday at 1:30pm, USTelecom President and CEO Walter B. McCormick will deliver a keynote address to the Telecommunications Committee, underscoring the tremendous importance of encouraging ongoing investment in broadband. USTelecom Executive Vice President Regina Hopper will also appear before the committee on Tuesday afternoon, as part of a panel discussion on how states and localities can help spur broadband growth. Although much of the action in telecommunications law happens in Washington, it’s also important to keep sight of the role state and local governments play in creating a legal and regulatory climate where innovation, investment, and advancement can flourish.

We’ll bring you more information on the NARUC meeting next week.

Markey Bill “Antithetical” to Congress’ Innovation Agenda February 14th, 2008

On Tuesday, Reps. Ed Markey (D – Mass.) and Chip Pickering (R – Miss.) introduced H.R. 5353, Chairman Markey’s latest attempt to codify the nebulous concept of network neutrality. Although the bill looks different than its 2006 predecessor, it still holds significant potential to erode innovation and investment in broadband networks, which will in turn hamper efforts to bring broadband’s benefits to more Americans. USTelecom’s Walter McCormick issued a statement on the bill, calling it “antithetical to the Congressional innovation agenda.”

The Markey bill is clearly written to the foregone conclusion that regulation of the Internet is necessary today—despite the absence of real-world “problems” for the government to “fix.” This approach would needlessly inject substantial uncertainty into our economy and dampen the investment climate for continued broadband deployment in our communities. With nearly 1,400 broadband service providers in the U.S. today, consumers should be driving broadband’s evolution, not Congress. If the national objective is bringing broadband’s promise to all Americans, then we have far better options than government regulation. From innovative, public-private partnerships like Connect Kentucky to progress in the Farm Bill to target rural broadband loans to unserved areas, we are finding constructive ways for the government, local communities and private companies to work together. A return to the policies of the past would be a real setback to the broadband future. It’s our hope that Congress will maintain its focus on encouraging continued progress in our efforts to bring broadband to all Americans.

President Signs Stimulus Package February 13th, 2008

Today, President Bush signed into law an economic stimulus package that includes tax rebate checks for individuals (including senior citizens and veterans), business tax benefits, and housing provisions. The bill, a compromise reached last week by the House and the Senate, includes two business tax provisions to assist business investment made in 2008. The first is a 50 percent bonus depreciation allowance for new equipment purchased and placed into service this year. (The deduction is allowable for regular and alternative minimum tax purposes.) Important for USTelecom members, whose outside plant and equipment tend to have longer asset lives, the one-year extension of the placed-in-service date (to January 1, 2010) is provided for certain property with a recovery period of 10 years or longer. The new law also increases the expensing limit for small businesses this year – by allowing them to immediately deduct up to $250,000 for both new and used tangible property purchased and placed in service in 2008, with an investment phase-out threshold of $800,000.

The importance of including measures in the stimulus package to encourage new investment can’t be stressed enough, especially when it comes to encouraging investment in information and communications networks. Robust, ubiquitous broadband is a key driving force in our economy, so policies that encourage investment and create incentives for infrastructure improvements in broadband spur growth in other industries, as well. Of course we’re glad that both Congress and the administration recognized that fact when considering these economic relief measures; hopefully they’ll continue to press for investment-friendly policies and consider some more lasting measures, such as updating the outdated depreciation schedule for telecom equipment!