Statewide Cable Franchise Fight

PA House Bill 1490 is AN ACT Amending Title 66 (Public Utilities) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, providing for Statewide cable franchises and for municipal regulation of franchise holders of; Statewide franchises. The bill was referred to the House Consumer Affairs committee on July 9.

What's happening is, companies like Verizon who are building high-speed networks plan to offer television programming over the network. However, because they are a communications company they argue they should not be subject to current franchising provisions OR that franchises should be extended to encompass the entire Commonwealth as opposed to individual municipalities.

This strategy recently encounted something of a challenge in Connecticut. In an opinion issued yesterday, Judge Janet Bond Arterton ruled that AT&T's U-Verse IPTV service is a cable television service like any other and is therefore subject to local franchising agreements.

What do you think this might mean for regional broadband infrastructure?

PA Telephone Association Comments on BFRR

David E. Freet President Pennsylvania Telephone Association discussed the Bona Fide Retail Request Program at some length during his presentation at the PA Technology and Telecommunications Summit June 7, 2007 [full presentation]. Bottom line, the process seems to be working.

The Northwest Commission has approximately 30 BFRR efforts under way. Three communities are awaiting confirmation from Verizon that they have met their deployment threshold. Please feel free to refer people with questions about the BFRR program to me at 814.677.4800 ext. 122.

Broadband Data Improvement Act clears Senate Committee

Broadband Data Improvement Act clears Senate Commerce Committee
By Nate Anderson Published: July 19, 2007 - 07:53PM CT

Congress has at last taken an interest in a seemingly arcane debate over the metrics used by the FCC and is moving on the issue with surprising speed. For years, geeks have criticized the way that the agency collects broadband information, focusing especially on the fact that the bar for "broadband" is set laughably low (200Kbps) and that if one person in a ZIP code has access, then the entire ZIP code is considered "served." The Broadband Data Improvement Act (PDF) hopes to remedy some of these problems, and it has just unanimously cleared the Senate Commerce Committee.

The bill, should it pass the broader Senate and House, would force the FCC to make a couple of major changes to the way that it puts together its broadband information. For one thing, the agency is directed to come up with a new metric for "second generation broadband," defined as being the minimum speed needed to stream full-motion, high-definition video.

The FCC also needs to get far more granular with its reporting, switching from the use of simple ZIP codes to the far more specific ZIP+4 codes. That may still not appease everyone, but it will greatly increase the quality of data from large, yet sparsely populated areas that might share a zip, but not the full ZIP+4. Arguably, it is these areas that need study the most.

The idea is that, unless policymakers have good data to work with, they are likely to end up making poor policy. Passage of the bill out of committee has already drawn praise from Free Press, one of the groups that has lobbied hard for the bill and has appeared at committee hearings where it was discussed.

Free Press policy director Ben Scott said, "For too long, policymakers have been forced to operate in the dark, relying on misleading and sometimes inaccurate information about the U.S. broadband market. By providing detailed information about the deployment, availability and use of broadband services in this country, the Broadband Data Improvement Act promises to bring us one step closer to our shared goal of universal, affordable broadband."

Average Broadband Speed in US is . . . SLOW!

A recent report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation finds that the average broadband speed in the US is 1.9 Mbps. (There's a point in-between the one and the nine!). In Japan the number is greater than 61 Mbps (no decimal point in that number!). That's pretty stiff competition. I've got to wonder what the number is in NW Pennsylvania. (I'll start checking and let you know what I find out!)

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has just released a 319-page report titled "OECD Communications Outlook 2007" (PDF). As you may have guessed by the title and the size, it's a comprehensive look at the state of the telecommunications industry around the world. Of particular interest is the section on broadband deployment, which tracks usage, deployment, and pricing trends over the past couple of years. Overall, broadband has become faster and cheaper, especially in countries where there are a large number of cable and DSL providers (Full article).

The Competition Question

USA Today published an article today, "States weigh limits on public Internet". The "competition" question is an important one. It was the first one that occurred to me when I first started considering Dr. Cohill's recommendations, and usually the first one to come up when the recommendations are being discussed.

The distinction Dr. Cohill makes is between infrastructure and service. I used the analogy of FedEx, UPS, and other delivery services building their own roads and prohibiting competitors from using them to provide competing delivery services. So then, just as the states do not provide mail service by virtue of owning and maintaining the roads, neither would they provide Internet services by virtue of owning and maintaining the network infrastructure.

I don't imagine this simple analogy even begins to address the vast complexities raised by the possibilities raised by the Cohill recommendations. And this simply reinforces our need to begin asking ourselves some of these tough questions.

MD Governor Commits $2M for Rural Broadband

MD Governor Robert Ehrlich released details of a $2 million advance to continue the rollout of the Rural Broadband Initiative. The effort will bring Internet via cable and fiber-optic lines to less-developed parts of eastern, southern and western Maryland. The announcement represents implementation of the second phase of a three phase plan authorized by the Rural Broadband Communication bill (SB 753). The Act was signed in May 2006 to bring access to fiber optic lines to the nine counties on the Eastern Shore and the three counties in Southern Maryland. An Internet Point of Presence (POP) will be located in each county along this new fiber line, focusing on connecting business and industrial parks.

I think this is another potential indicator of the scale of project we need to be considering in NW Pennsylvania. That is, township-specific or county-based initiatives, as substantial as they are, may not be big enough.

Clarion Presentation 07.12.2007

I'll be presenting the Design Nine recommendations in Clarion, PA tomorrow morning during the Clarion County Economic Development Corporation Eggs & Answers breakfast. The presentation will be posted on this site following the conclusion of the program.

Welcome!

The purpose of this online weblog ("blog") is to promote dialogue in response to the Design Nine/Andrew Cohill recommendations relating to broadband strategy in Northwest Pennsylvania.

The Northwest Commission will use the feedback gathered here to inform the ongoing efforts related to broadband infrastructure development.