Verizon calls for new broadband incentives
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. government should launch a new program that provides grants and loans for broadband providers to extend service to rural areas, a top executive at Verizon said Monday. The U.S. should use as a model a state program called ConnectKentucky, which has provided 94 percent of Kentucky residents with broadband options, said Tom Tauke, Verizon's executive vice president for public affairs, policy, and communications. Kentucky, a state with large rural areas and chunks of hilly terrain, expects to provide about 99 percent of its residents with a broadband carrier by the end of the year, Tauke said. The rest of the nation likely won't reach U.S. President George Bush's goal of universal broadband access by the end of 2007, Tauke said. The U.S. needs to look at broadband incentive programs "sooner rather than later," he said. Broadband access can have a large impact on local economies and services such as health care, Tauke said. The new program proposed by Verizon could use some existing funding, including redirecting some funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS), which had a 2006 budget of $6.1 billion, he said. The RUS now subsidizes several types of utilities, including broadband, electricity, distance learning, and telemedicine. New funds may also be needed, Tauke said, although he didn't provide specific numbers at a press briefing. Part of the problem is there's no good measure of how many U.S. residents have access to broadband, Tauke said. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission released a report Jan. 31 saying 99 percent of all U.S. postal codes had at least one broadband provider, but critics have noted that the FCC would count a postal code if a provider offered service to just a handful of residents. Tauke called for a comprehensive study of what broadband gaps exist. "We just don't know today who has broadband and who doesn't," he said. Verizon has not yet pitched the idea to most lawmakers, Tauke said. The telecom giant also called on the U.S. Congress to make changes the Universal Service Fund program, a $4 billion program that subsidizes telephone access in rural and poor areas. Instead of providing USF funds to multiple carriers, the U.S. government should cap USF at its current funding levels, and require carriers to bid to provide service in areas where subsidies are needed, Tauke said. "Reverse auctions" forcing carriers to compete to provide service would end the current system in which multiple carriers, sometimes five or more wireless voice providers, receive USF money to provide service in the same territory, Tauke said. Verizon does not currently take USF money, he said. "If you have multiple carriers offering service in a territory, that would seem to suggest you don't need Universal Service Fund support," he said. "[Carriers say] 'If somebody's going to hand out money, why not take it?'" The tax on telephone service to pay for USF has risen from about 3.2 percent in 1998 to 9.7 percent currently, Verizon noted in a proposal to the Federal-Sate Joint Board on Universal Service, filed Friday. "The level of fees is becoming staggeringly high," he said. "The system is broken, it's not working, and it's unfair." Several rural lawmakers have opposed changes to USF. Tauke didn't address net neutrality, an issue that dominated telecom debates in Congress last year, until asked about it. Verizon expects efforts that would prohibit broadband carriers from blocking or slowing Web content from competitors to fail in Congress this year, partly because the FCC and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission are monitoring providers, he said. The two agencies "are watching the issue like hawks," he said.
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In a sign of hot competition among wireless carriers, AT&T and Verizon Wireless each unveiled $99.99-a-month unlimited wireless calling plans today.
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Verizon Wireless set off a stampede to unlimited voice plans among U.S. mobile operators on Tuesday.After the carrier said it would let subscribers talk for as long as they want within the U.S. for $99.99 per month, rivals AT&amp;T and T-Mobile USA followed suit. Sprint Nextel, which offers 2,000 anytime minutes per month for $99.99, did not.Verizon&#39;s unlimited individual plan, as well as a shared family plan starting at $199.98, is available now.T-Mobile&#39;s plan, becoming available Thursday, will allow unlimited voice as well as messaging. That carrier, which targets youth as a key demographic, has been offering several plans for big talkers, including an Individual Ultra plan with 2,500 minutes for $99.99 and Individual Supra with 5,000 minutes for $129.99. AT&amp;T likewise had offered such plans, including a 6,000-minute service for $199.99.The major U.S. carriers haven&#39;t traditionally offered unlimited minutes. The rush to match Verizon&#39;s plan indicated the level of competition in the mobile market, where carriers are now pushing e-mail, Web access, and other data services as the price of voice minutes has fallen.But the new plans will probably appeal to only a small segment of the market, analysts said. Realtors and small-business owners who spend a lot of time on the road might find it useful, they said. Most carriers already offer free calls on nights and weekends and plans that include free calling to frequent contacts or people on the same network. Mobile data services such as Verizon&#39;s BroadbandAccess 3G (third-generation) will cost extra. And the $99.99 unlimited products are separate from family plans with shared minutes, which cost more.Also Tuesday, Verizon revamped its data offerings to reach different types of customers. A $39.99 plan will allow for 50MB of data traffic per month, and a $59.99 offering will cover 5GB. The new data plans will become available March 2.Sprint offers unlimited data on its EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) network, which is similar to Verizon&#39;s, for $59.99 per month. There are some uses that aren&#39;t allowed, including continuous heavy data traffic and Web hosting. AT&amp;T places a 5GB limit only on plans for mobile data cards to be used in notebook PCs, not on phone plans. Verizon and some other carriers have been criticized in the past for advertising unlimited data while actually cutting off users who went over a certain limit.
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(InfoWorld) - New broadband providers should be given a better chance of winning pieces of valuable wireless spectrum to be auctioned by early next year, several groups said Friday. The groups, including Google, startup Frontline Wireless, and consumer advocate Public Knowledge, called on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to change the way it auctions spectrum when it sells off 60Mhz of spectrum to be freed up when U.S. television stations move to all-digital broadcasts. The auction of the coveted 700MHz band of spectrum -- which allows broadband-speed wireless signals to travel farther and penetrate buildings better than some other bands -- presents the best hope U.S. consumers have of a third major broadband service to challenge cable and DSLÂ carriers, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation, a think tank that hosted Friday's spectrum forum. "If we do nothing -- if we take the [auction] rules we've used for the last 10 years, the same incumbents are going to win," added Harold Feld, senior vice president of the Media Access Project, an open media advocacy group. "There is no competition fairy. There is no magic that's going to happen that if we just deregulate enough, somehow a new competitor is going to emerge." The groups at the spectrum auction forum didn't agree on all the details, but they suggested that the way the FCC has auctioned spectrum in the recent past has favored large incumbent telecom carriers. The FCC is expected to set the rules and conditions for the auction of the 700MHz band of spectrum in the coming weeks. The groups called on the FCC to require that the winners of a chunk of the spectrum allow "open access" -- sell access to competitors on a wholesale basis. The open access requirement would allow a nearly unlimited number of competitors to offer wireless broadband services, said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge. The groups also want the FCC to conduct anonymous auctions -- where bidders wouldn't know whom they're bidding against. In the past, large wireless carriers have used transparent auctions to drive up prices on chunks of spectrum being bid on by small competitors, said Gregory Rose, an econometrician and game theorist working with open access proponents. In many cases, many larger carriers then dropped their bids after the smaller carriers were eliminated, he said. Some carriers have also engaged in retaliatory bidding against other companies that bid on spectrum they were interested in, he said. The retaliating bidder will bid on spectrum the second company is interested in, "as a signal to say, 'back off on the license I want, or I will drive the price of the license you want through the roof,'" Rose said. VerizonÂ and AT&T, two large broadband and wireless carriers, have declined to comment on the upcoming auctions. But some free-market think tanks and carrier trade groups have been vocal in opposing open access requirements for the spectrum auctions. Scott Cleland, chairman of advocacy group NetCompetition.org, questioned Frontline Wireless' open access goals in a blog post Thursday. Frontline "wants the FCC to auction spectrum to them requiring ... open access -- so effectively no company will be able/or want to pay much for the 700 MHz spectrum -- and so Frontline Wireless could capture this most valuable spectrum available at the market-managed price of pennies on the dollar," he wrote. But Frontline chairwoman Janice Obuchowski, speaking at Friday's forum, noted that the two largest wireless carriers are gobbling up market share, and without new auction rules, that will continue to happen after spectrum auctions. She called for the FCC to auction off the 700Mhz spectrum in small chunks that smaller companies can afford, breaking with Google's call for larger blocks to be auctioned. The goal of the auction should be for "true, robust competition" to emerge, she said.
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Nextel Communications Inc. is pressing the Federal Communications Commission to revamp its controversial decision giving the cellular company new airwaves, seeking changes that according to
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A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate this week would require the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to reconsider what bandwidth rates qualify as broadband, a move that won praise from some groups that call current broadband penetration statistics misleading.
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Blog: The same pair of politicos who pushed last year for strict nondiscrimination requirements for broadband operators are looking to federal regulators to help revive their cause.
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Verizon Communications Inc. yesterday identified 19 Boston suburbs -- including Natick, Newton, and Woburn -- where it will offer super-fast Internet access over a new fiber-optic network this year.
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Verizon Wireless introduced an unlimited calling plan with no roaming or long-distance fees for $99.99 a month, an offer that could spark a price war among carriers.
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Verizon Communications Inc. on Tuesday introduced an unusual plan for its fiber-optic Internet service: one that uploads as fast as it downloads.
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Verizon announced Thursday it is digging up streets and stringing wire in six states, including Maryland and Virginia, to deliver high-speed Internet service and cable-style television to customers.
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Plans for valuable wireless spectrum being considered by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission may not go far enough to encourage a new broadband competitor, said groups calling for open-access rules for part of the spectrum.
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SAN ANTONIO, June 15  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T Inc.  today announced a new broadband offer designed to promote the benefits of broadband and deliver even greater value to today's consumers -- especially those still on dial-up service.
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InfoWorld - Two members of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission called for the federal government to create a wide-ranging national broadband strategy to help small businesses compete on a global level.
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Consumers rejoice, Verizon fumes Good news for smartphone users. Bad news for the big name wireless carriers. FCC chairman Kevin Martin has released suggested rules for an upcoming radio-spectrum auction that would allow consumers to attach any device and any application to U.S. broadband wireless networks - without approval from the likes of AT&amp;T and Verizon Wireless.â¦
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InfoWorld - Fifty-four organizations, including Amazon, Google, and TiVO, have called on the U.S. government to create a national broadband policy, saying there&#39;s no plan now in place focused on providing affordable access for all residents.
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Verizon Wireless challenges the the FCC's proposed open-access rules for the upcoming auction of 700-MHz spectrum. Verizon's petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit calls the FCC regs "arbitrary and capricious."