WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission started the six-month process of determining what constitutes broadband services, who has it and if someone doesn’t have it, why.
It has been more than two years since the FCC last conducted a Section 706 inquiry-so named for its place in the Communications Act. Section 706 requires the commission to conduct regular reviews of advanced services and determine whether they are being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion. In the past, the FCC pre-determined that high-speed services transmit 200 kilobits in both directions, and when it found that at least one person in a ZIP code had access to such a service, it considered that ZIP code covered. This definition and determination has consistently come under fire from those advocating additional resources be spent to deploy broadband technology to under-served areas and populations like the disabled community.
The FCC gathers data twice a year from telecommunications carriers that have 250 or more high-speed service lines or wireless channels in service in a state. While the commission publishes the results of this data collection, it keeps company-specific information private.
The inquiry will also look at why the United States was recently ranked 11th by the International Telecommunications Union in broadband deployment.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, who has often criticized the agency’s data-collection activities, was apparently successful in getting additional questions asked during this inquiry.
“I have had problems-methodological and otherwise-with the approach the FCC took in the past with this inquiry. I thought our questions were not sufficiently probing and our conclusions were not supported by the facts,” said Copps. “We need to dig deep, beyond cursory ZIP-code data and outdated kilobit standards for advanced service. We have to figure out who is being left behind and why and then articulate a plan to fill in the deployment gaps we identify. This task is not small.”
