Posted by Barlow Keener
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 funding [...]
Posted by Barlow Keener
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 USDA’s [...]
Posted by Barlow Keener
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 [...]
Posted by Barlow Keener
The intercarrier compensation scheme is a mess. On this all parties agree. Over the years, the FCC moved from the role of regulator overseeing compensation payments that were enforced through tariffs between carriers to becoming a collector and distributor of billions of dollars of collected funds. There is little agreement on how to implement a [...]
Posted by Barlow Keener
There has been a great deal of talk about open mobile applications, devices and access since last year’s FCC 700Mhz auction order for open mobile devices. The open mobile proposal was teed up by Google as a requirement for the successful bidder of the 700Mhz C Block. The C Block covered the nation with a [...]
Posted by Barlow Keener
On July 23, 2008, a new 911 statute was entered into law. The “New and Emerging Technologies (NET) 911 Improvement Act of 2008” (the NET 911 Act) requires the FCC to enact rules implementing the Act’s provisions within 90 days of the effective date of the legislation, or October 21, 2008. The legislation was designed [...]
Posted by Barlow Keener
Technorati Tags: FCC,Telecommunications,Audio bridging
Reregulation is a rarely used term in the U.S. telecommunications lexicon. The term though is being popularized in the banking and airline industries. Even the tough former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall in April 2008 encouraged some reregulation of the airlines: “Adding some sensible regulations …needed to give our airlines opportunities for [...]
Posted by Barlow Keener
Technorati Tags: FCC,VOIP
On April 9, 2008, the FCC released an order, in an obscure enforcement bureau matter, declaring that a provider’s VoIP peering service was a “telecommunications service” subject to Title II regulation. In the order, In the Matter of Compass Global Inc., the Commission used its rationale of the 2004 AT&T IP-in-the-Middle calling card [...]
Posted by Barlow Keener
On May 28, 2008, the FCC issued yet another declaratory order relating to TRS (Telecommunications Relay Service) providing clarification of a 2007 order related to the use of customer information by TRS providers. By issuing the clarification order, the Commission is seeking to avoid litigation initiated by TRS providers regarding their right to contact and [...]
Posted by Barlow Keener
On April 24, 2008, the FCC granted AT&T’s request for forbearance pursuant to Section 160 of in WC Docket No. 07-21 and 05-342 from accounting rules that assigned costs for the regional bell operating companies (RBOC). The FCC’s cost assignment accounting rules were created to ensure that the monopoly regulated side of the RBOC business was [...]
