WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week created a wireless broadband access task force to help craft policies for fostering deployment of high-speed wireless Internet services in the United States.
“We are strongly committed to facilitating broadband investment and deployment, particularly through technological choices,” said FCC Chairman Michael Powell. “This commission has put a high priority on making sure Americans have access to broadband services through multiple facilities-based platforms. I believe that we can do even more. I have asked this task force to study existing wireless broadband polices and make recommendations for possible improvements to promote the growth of both licensed and unlicensed wireless broadband services. The overarching goal of this initiative is to take a hard look at what we can do to extend the reach of broadband services to underserved areas and to provide increased competition in areas that already have access to broadband.”
The FCC last year opened a large chunk of frequencies at 5 GHz for unlicensed wireless broadband and is struggling to write rules for wireless Internet service in the 2.5 GHz band.
The FCC has solicited comments on wireless broadband issues. Responses are due June 3 and reply comments July 1. The commission said it will hold roundtables-including one scheduled May 19-to gather more information. The task force plans to present a report with findings and recommendations to the FCC in October.
Powell has long been an advocate of wireless as an additional pipe into the home for the deployment of broadband.
President George W. Bush has said he wants universal broadband access by 2007. As part of his broadband initiative, Bush’s Agriculture Department last week approved 20 rural broadband and telecom loans totaling $190 million.
“Telecommunications companies like Nex-Tech Inc. of Lenora, Kan., are improving the capability for rural businesses and farmers and ranchers to compete globally through better access to the Internet. One of their customers, Osbourne Industries, shared with Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman in January 2003 how their local agricultural services manufacturing company is utilizing high-speed connections to better manage and market their products in domestic and international markets. Nex-Tech will receive a $5.4 million loan to further expand broadband access to 1,400 new subscribers,” said the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The majority of the $190 million is money authorized in the 2002 Farm Bill for the Rural Broadband Loan Program. The Rural Broadband Loan Program is administered by the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service.
The rural broadband program had a tough time being included in the fiscal-year 2004 budget. In FY 2003, RUS made $1.4 billion in loans and loan guarantees available to provide broadband service in rural communities with populations of fewer than 20,000.
While the rural broadband program is technology neutral, some wireless carriers have complained that RUS rules restrict its availability to incumbents because RUS will not provide competing loans in the same service area.
The remaining $40 million in loans were made using existing rural development funds.
The Telecommunications Industry Association heralded the loans.
“Universal broadband access in our country could be jump-started by actions as simple as providing tax credits for broadband infrastructure investments in rural and underserved areas,” said TIA President Matthew Flanigan. “However, there still remains a number of rural Americans who do not have the ability to receive broadband access. TIA urges the administration and Congress to continue their efforts to provide full funding for this program as authorized in the 2002 Farm Bill and to take all appropriate steps to assist the RUS in facilitating the processing of loan funds provided in FY 2002-2004.”
Another example of Bush’s broadband initiative is his recent executive order to improve rights-of-way management of federal lands to foster high-speed Internet deployment including wireless. Last month, while announcing the executive order, he for the first time uttered the word absent in previous references to broadband: wireless.
“We need to open up more federally controlled wireless spectrum to auction in free public use, to make wireless broadband more accessible, reliable and affordable,” Bush told an audience in Minneapolis. “Listen, one of the technologies that’s coming is wireless. And if you’re living out in-I should-I was going to say Crawford, Texas, but it’s not-maybe not nearly as remote. How about Terlingua, Texas? There’s not a lot of wires out there. But wireless technology is going to change all that, so long as government policy makes sense.”
The president’s executive memorandum on broadband rights-of-way directs federal departments to implement a working group’s recommendations in a new report.
“As you’re trying to get broadband spread throughout the company, make sure it’s easy to build across federal lands,” said Bush. “One sure way to hold things up is that the federal lands say, `You can’t build on us.’ So how is some guy in remote Wyoming going to get any broadband technology? Regulatory policy has got to be wise and smart as we encourage the spread of this important technology. There needs to be technical standards to make possible new broadband technologies, such as the use of high-speed communication directly over power lines. Power lines were for electricity; power lines can be used for broadband technology. So the technical standards need to be changed to encourage that.”
The recommendations would streamline and expedite rights-of-way application processing and ensure that fees charged by federal agencies are reasonable.
“These recommendations are the result of governmental agencies throughout the administration working together to make the president’s stated national goal of affordable access to broadband technology a reality by 2007,” said Michael Gallagher, acting assistant Commerce secretary for telecommunications and information.
Bush’s remarks were welcomed by a struggling high-tech sector that has hungered since Bush became president for stronger White House leadership on broadband policy.
In this election year when Bush’s November opponent-Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)-also promises to unveil a national broadband strategy, the president has talked more about broadband during the past two months than he has during all of his first three years in office combined.
Sometimes broadband is delivered through licensed facilities and sometimes through unlicensed. Wi-Fi has gained in popularity as hot spots are created. Recently, nonprofit group Open Park Project launched a public outdoor wireless Internet hot spot on Capitol Hill. The free Wi-Fi service offers coverage in front of the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress and outside of the U.S. Capitol.
Open Park also announced it has received a “significant donation” of Wi-Fi equipment and services from Tropos Networks Inc., which supplies equipment for metro-scale Wi-Fi networks. The group will use the donation to expand its service to cover the National Mall, from the Washington Monument to Capitol Hill.
