The business of Internet, wireless, and telecom law.
On February 9, 2011, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on numerous proposed changes to “fundamentally modernize” the USF (Universal Service Fund) and another subsidy program called the “intercarrier compensation system.” The USF “High Cost Fund” is a multibillion dollar annual subsidy created in [...]
The Recovery Act NTIA winners are waiting for millions of dollars of stimulus funding. The NTIA winners receiving the largest grants will install fiber on thousands of miles of poles. These NTIA fiber winners will be the new competitors to the ILECs who own the poles. The FCC is trying to address the pole problem [...]
Universal Service Reform has been in the FCC “reform hopper” for more than 10 years. Commissioner McDowell correctly labeled the USF program “antiquated, arcane, inefficient and just downright broken.” Fixing USF is anything but easy because while you can move USF money from one bucket to another, lowering the fee will take away government subsidies [...]
Technorati Tags: FCC,NTIA,Cisco,Alcatel-Lucent,FTTH,Fiber,Recovery Act,BTOP On Friday, July 26, 2009, the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration) granted a “limited waiver” for the Buy America restriction in the Recovery Act covering certain types of equipment that may be required for broadband projects. The NTIA is responsible for overseeing the process of delivering $4.7 billion in stimulus [...]
Technorati Tags: FCC,National Broadband Plan,ARRA The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act ("ARRA”) appropriated $7.2 billion for various broadband projects. The primary goals of the ARRA broadband provisions are 1) to increase broadband penetration for the unserved, both rural and urban, 2) to increase broadband adoption for the “underserved,” and 3) to deliver new jobs. The [...]
While visiting Denver’s Museum of Nature and Science this week, President Obama signed the historic “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” For the telecom industry, as well as other sectors of the economy, the Recovery Act presents the opportunity for obtaining billions of dollars of grants and loans and delivering jobs and hope to the economy. [...]
This month the FCC narrowly avoided addressing the messy political hot-potato of comprehensive intercarrier compensation reform. Very few, even inside the industry, have a full grasp of the complex problems involved with reform. On November 5, 2008, the FCC issued a lengthy order addressing the dial-up reciprocal compensation issues related to the Core Communications order [...]
