According to the letter:

“The proposed regulatory about-face would be untenable as a legal matter and, at a minimum, would plunge the industry into years of litigation and regulatory chaos. And it would threaten to extend common carrier regulation not just to broadband Internet access providers, but to huge swaths of the Internet at large, betraying decades of bipartisan support for keeping the Internet unregulated. This misguided regulatory overreach would thereby suppress the private innovation and investment—at both the core and the edge of the network—that have made the Internet the most powerful engine of economic growth in our time, and that are so vital to achieving your ‘100 Squared’ initiative—100 million households at 100 megabits per second by 2020—which you identified as a core objective of the National Broadband Plan. In short, the Commission should keep this Pandora’s Box of Title II classification nailed shut.“

The letter was covered with stories in the Washington Post, The Hill, Bloomberg and Broadcasting & Cable.

Today, USTelecom President Walter McCormick sent a letter to members of Congress calling on them to act expeditiously on the matter.  “Failure to act will jeopardize not just the financial industry,” McCormick wrote, “but also the telecommunications industry and our customers.”  Noting the substantial contribution of the broadband industry to the U.S. economy, McCormick continued, “This investment on broadband represents 20% of the nation’s overall private sector investment. This investment in our future – and the productivity enhancements and improvements to the quality of life that it provides – is being put at risk by Congressional inaction.”For the sake of USTelecom’s members, their customers, and the economy, McCormick concludes, “We ask that Congress support bipartisan Congressional leadership efforts to stabilize the nation’s financial markets. It is imperative that you act responsibly, and act now.”

Yesterday afternoon, USTelecom CEO Walter McCormick sent a letter to Reps. John Dingell (D – Mich.) and Joe Barton (R – Tex.), the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the committee outlining our concerns. Walter’s letter enumerated ways the bill’s goal of protecting consumers is undermined, including for example, a long and prescriptive list of disclosures that, under the approach contemplated in the bill, must appear on the calling cards themselves. He wrote:

Even if all these disclosures could fit onto a 2-by-3 inch calling card, as the bill requires, they would have to appear in a type size so small that the average consumer would derive little real benefit at all. Moreover, while it is clear from the two recent congressional hearings on this subject that the business practices of our membership in this area are not in question, the bill could subject telecom providers to duplicative and inconsistent regulation and enforcement from two different federal agencies and a multitude of state and local authorities.

In short, USTelecom wants to ensure that the legislation avoids duplicative FTC and FCC regulation and enforcement; inconsistent federal, state, and local enforcement regimes; and impractical disclosure requirements that are unfriendly to consumers.

USTelecom is pleased to join this broad-based alliance of organizations that are striving to bring broadband to underserved and unserved parts of the country. As the bills pending before Congress recognize, accelerating investment and deployment in those areas depends on accurate broadband mapping and effective targeting of resources. I encourage Congress to seriously consider the coalition’s letter and adopt broadband legislation that will bring the benefits of broadband—from health and education to entertainment and the environment—to all Americans, regardless of where they live.

Mapping, of course, is the key to identifying where gaps in coverage exist and figuring out why: are there geographic considerations that make it difficult to reach consumers, like terrain or remoteness, that limit supply? Are there demographic factors, like population density or low technological adoption in general, that are keeping demand for service low? Some of those questions will be difficult to answer, but none of them can be answered–and therefore no problems can be solved–by either the industry or by Congress without first having specific data about where coverage exists and where it doesn’t. Hopefully the letter we signed on to will give Congress the push it needs to pass legislation that supports state and local efforts, especially those based on public-private partnerships which seem far more likely to succeed.

Although there is currently no formal committee investigation on universal service, Chairman Waxman’s letter indicates an interest in the issue on the committee’s part. USTelecom will be sure to keep you up to date about developments on universal service, both in Congress and at the FCC.

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.