FCC authority over broadband was also a topic of discussion at a recent Berkman Center event in Washington, DC.  One of the expert panelists was Jon Nuechterlein, a Partner at Wilmer Hale who was formerly Deputy General Counsel of the Federal Communications Commission.  NextGenWeb sat down with Nuechterlein to discuss the implications of the FCC’s proposed “third way.” His history at the FCC and expertise on these issues make him a valuable voice in this time of great debate (Disclaimer – Nuechterlein speaks on behalf of himself, and his views are not necessarily those of his clients or firm).

You can read the op-ed in its entirety here.

Levin referred to an old Apple ad from the late 80’s in which one office executive asks another “which computer do you think is the most powerful?”  The other responds “I think it’s the one people actually use.”  Levin’s point, which is well – taken, is that the important thing is not the numbers, but how people use broadband.

The conversation continued with a panel of key industry officials representing Canada, Korea, the UK, and other parts of Europe, moderated by Lynn Stanton, Senior Editor of TR Reports.   The panelists echoed support for the plan and shared their respective countries’ stories of broadband success.   You can watch the Broadband Breakfast, titled “International Perspectives on the U.S. National Broadband Plan,” in its entirety below.

International Perspectives on the U.S. National Broadband Plan from Broadband Breakfast on Vimeo.

Today, Phoebe Yang, General Counsel for the Omnibus Broadband Initiative at the FCC, joined a panel titled “The Future of Broadband” that was hosted by the CQ-Roll Call Group.  Yang wanted to focus on two calls to action in the broadband plan.  First, she believes the national priorities are key because of how they will benefit Americans. Yang cited that 62% of American workers rely on the Internet to do their jobs, and then touched on just some of the opportunities broadband creates in the education and public safety sectors.  Her second focus is making broadband ubiquitous, which led to the establishment of the Connect America and Mobility Funds to help with access to the unserved.

NextGenWeb will continue to follow the challenges and successes as the FCC continues to move into the implementation phase of the National Broadband Plan.

Panelists seemed unanimous that Congress will need to play a role going forward, although debated whether light touch or heavy regulation should be their approach. Barbara Esbin of the Progress & Freedom Foundation began the discussion sharing several arguments of how limited the FCC’s authority actually is, arguing that to change classification, the FCC would have to prove broadband changed three years ago when the case was decided.  She believes that to succeed on this front, one would have to show the power to compel common carriership, which courts have generally not done.

Hank Hultquist, Vice President of Federal Regulatory at AT&T, was also on the panel.  He believes that there is no reason to believe that things have changed enough to make the Comcast decision different.  Watch the video below to hear more from Hultquist on why he believes that the current rhetoric is too broad on the impact of the Comcast decision on the FCC and why he believes the judgment was fair.

“We are writing to ask that your Administration adopt the goal of giving every household and business access to timely, useful and actionable information on their energy use.  By giving people the ability to monitor and manage their energy consumption, for instance, via their computers, phones or other devices, we can unleash the forces of innovation in homes and businesses.  At the same time, we can harness the power of millions of people to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — and save consumers billions of dollars.”

Broadband deployment and adoption is key to meeting these goals, which is why signatories include broadband providers AT&T and Verizon, in addition to organizations like the Center for American Progress, Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.  Even the FCC’s Energy and Environment Director Nick Sinai applauded the letter. “It’s encouraging to see a diverse set of influential organizations endorse the principle that consumers should be able to get access to timely energy data as a way to ‘unleash the forces of innovation in homes and businesses’ and prevent millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions,” Sinai said in his recent blog posting on the FCC’s BlogBand blog.

Click here for more info on how broadband can help save carbon emissions and power a greener future for generations and beyond.

Several companies and government leaders that are working to solve energy, environment and transportation challenges presented their proposed solutions for the best ways to move America into a more energy efficient 21^st century.  Eric Lightner spoke first on behalf of the Department of Energy’s SmartGrid Task Force about his plans for modernizing electricity delivery, followed by Dean Prochaska of NIST on achieving interoperability, and Mark Dudzinski from GE on the benefits of a Smart Grid, all of which could not be achieved with the power of the broadband network.

And what are some of the benefits of a SmartGrid?

• Demand and response optimization
• Delivery optimization
• Reduction in emissions
• More reliable service
• Better grid management
• Better incorporation of renewables

Broadband was the focus of the second half of the workshop, which included speakers Chris Walker of The Climate Group and Colin Buechler of LifeSize Communications, both of whom supported their assertions by teleconferencing in to participate, and thereby using broadband technology to reduce their carbon footprints.

The need for broadband access and adoption for the country to truly enjoy the benefits of the Smart Grid was unanimous among the panelists.  Broadband would enable consumers to better manage their electric bills, lower their costs, and enjoy other energy saving applications.

In fact, one speaker declared lack of broadband adoption to be a double whammy because that household is missing out on two revolutions — the benefits of broadband and the Smart Grid!

To encourage public dialogue on the development of a national broadband strategy, the FCC launched a blog this week cleverly titled “BlogBand.” With contributors including FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Broadband Czar Blair Levin, the blog is already an active dialogue platform. The blog represents a great opportunity to follow the formal and informal thoughts of our government’s broadband leadership. It also presents the opportunity for those who are not able to participate in the FCC’s broadband workshops to still be involved in the discussions.

We at NextGenWeb look forward to participating in this innovative, online conversation. Most of the postings to date cover various aspects of the FCC workshops and emphasize the diverse participation among the many stakeholders in our broadband future. From network engineers to consumers to health care providers, teachers and others who use broadband to improve people’s lives, everyone is encouraged to submit their thoughts.

What will you tell our government about what the broadband future means to you?

]]> http://www.nextgenweb.org/home/new-fcc-blog-you-can-help-define-broadband-policy/feed 0 http://www.nextgenweb.org/home/fcc-hears-from-experts-on-broadband-adoption http://www.nextgenweb.org/home/fcc-hears-from-experts-on-broadband-adoption#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:50:22 +0000 Shana Glickfield http://www.nextgenweb.org/?p=2740 Today, the FCC hosted a panel of experts for the latest workshop in their broadband series, entitled “Building the Fact Base: The State of Broadband Adoption and Utilization.” Each of the following panelists gave a short presentation and then answered questions both from the FCC and the public.

•    Susannah Fox, Associate Director, Digital Strategy, Pew Internet & American Life Project

•    Peter L. Stenberg, Ph.D., Senior Economist, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture

•    Christopher Guttman-McCabe, Vice-President, Regulatory Affairs, CTIA-The Wireless Association

•    Link Hoewing, Vice President of Internet and Technology Policy, Verizon

•    Karen Archer Perry, Director of the Connected Communities Team, Knight Center of Digital Excellence

•    Kate Williams, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Graduate School of Library and Information Science

The workshop covered a wide range of topics from digital literacy to privacy to generational and demographic differences.  But the bottom line was clear: The primary obstacle to adoption is not access, but understanding value.

Pew Internet is considered one of the best sources of data on broadband adoption.  Susannah Fox shared key findings in her presentation including:

•Broadband adoption is up, especially for older Americans, lower income groups, and in rural areas.
•Broadband users value their increased access to health and medical information, civic life and economic opportunities.
•Non-users most often cite factors relating to relevance of the Internet to their lives as reasons for non-adoption.
•Price and availability are lesser issues when it comes to broadband adoption.

Link Hoewing of Verizon shared industry data in his presentation, demonstrating how time spent online has dramatically increased, across generations and technologies.

Overall, panelists agreed that digital literacy is critical to broadband adoption, and adoption is critical to society and democracy.  It is now up to policymakers and communities to develop innovative approaches to help more Americans cross the digital divide.

As the FCC looks abroad for lessons learned in advancing U.S. broadband, we encourage policymakers to take a more expansive view of the current international state of play:

We’ll start with the Technology Policy Institute, where earlier this summer Vice President for Research and Senior Fellow Scott Wallsten discussed findings in his new paper on U.S. broadband. TPI’s analysis should not fall on deaf ears as the FCC looks into the state of U.S. broadband. According to Wallsten’s report, the U.S. is the global leader in broadband infrastructure investment and offers among the least expensive entry-level broadband plans in the world. Leading progress in capacity and reach? Check. Reducing barriers to access? Check. Where can we do better? Stimulating demand among those who still don’t see the benefits of broadband (another major theme here at NextGenWeb).

Also this summer the Phoenix Center released its Broadband Adoption Index (BAI), which measures broadband adoption by country-specific benchmarks. Again, taking into consideration the vast differences between the size and scope of the U.S. marketplace relative to Latvia and Estonia, the Phoenix Center model paints a much more accurate – and positive – picture of how the U.S. is performing relative to its international counterpoints.

As the FCC continues its search for all the ingredients of a national broadband strategy, we hope that they take a hard look at the OECD methodology and take into account the many competing analyses that paint quite a different picture both of where we are today—and most importantly—the velocity with which we are making progress to deliver ever better, faster and more sophisticated broadband to all Americans.
If we want a national broadband strategy that works, then our efforts must start with a clear-eyed understanding of where we stand right now, and what it will take to achieve our forward-looking goals. Stay connected to NextGenWeb for continuing coverage of the FCC hearings and ongoing efforts to craft a successful national broadband strategy.