by Edward Wyatt

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission voted 3 to 2 on Thursday to move toward giving itself the authority to regulate the transmission component of broadband Internet service, a power the commission’s majority believes is central to expanding the availability of broadband.

The vote formally begins a period of public comment on an F.C.C. proposal to overturn a previous commission ruling that classified broadband transmission as a lightly regulated information service.

The proposal would designate broadband transmission as a telecommunications service, which, as with telephone service, would make it subject to stricter regulation.

The commission has said it intends to exempt broadband service from most of the regulatory options it has under the stricter designation, keeping only those regulations that are necessary “to implement fundamental universal service, competition and market entry, and consumer protection policies.” It would not regulate Internet content.

Opponents of the reclassification say it would give the F.C.C. the power to regulate rates charged to consumers by broadband service providers, something that Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the commission, has said it does not intend to do.

The F.C.C. began reconsidering its broadband regulation policies after a federal court of appeals in April invalidated the approach that the commission had long taken. That decision involved the commission’s ability to require that Internet service providers not discriminate against any content or application. The F.C.C. claimed that Comcast had done so in blocking access by its users to BitTorrent, a file-sharing service.

Mr. Genachowski said the commission was seeking comment on three possibilities — keeping regulation as it is, imposing a full telecommunications regulatory regime, and a “third way” approach of limited regulation. He likened that approach to the way the commission has regulated mobile phone services for nearly 20 years.

“The third way approach was developed out of a desire to restore the status quo light-touch framework that existed prior to the court case,” Mr. Genachowski said. “Let’s not pretend that the problems with the state of broadband in America don’t exist; let’s not pretend that the risk of excessive regulation is not real, or, at the other extreme, that the absence of basic protections for competition and consumers is acceptable.”

Commissioners Michael J. Copps and Mignon Clyburn joined Mr. Genachowski in voting to open the comment process, while Meredith Attwell Baker and Robert M. McDowell opposed it.

In her dissenting statement, Ms. Baker said the proposal “will place the heavy thumb of government on the scale of a free market to the point where innovation and investment in the ‘core’ of the Net are subjected to the whims of ‘Mother-May-I’ regulators.”

Future commission members, she said, could overturn current decisions to regulate broadband service only lightly.

Congress could give the F.C.C. the authority to regulate broadband transmission service, but a majority of the House has signed letters saying it opposed the move. Democratic leaders in the Senate have generally supported the idea, but have said they are not sure if they would be able to write a bill and approve it this year.

Copyright 2010 The New York Times

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Communications regulators are holding a series of closed-door meetings with phone, cable and Internet lobbyists in an effort to hammer out a deal over how broadband should be regulated, a senior official said on Monday.

Representatives from broadband providers including AT&T Inc, Verizon Communications Inc and Internet companies met on Monday with Edward Lazarus, chief of staff for Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski.

A similar meeting was also held Friday, one day after the FCC voted to collect public comments on whether the agency should reclassify broadband regulation under existing phone rules -- typically considered a stricter regulatory regime.

In April, a U.S. appeals court ruled the FCC had failed to show it had the authority to stop Comcast Corp from blocking online applications that distributed television shows and other bandwidth-hogging files.

Genachowski and his two fellow Democrats want the FCC to regulate broadband access to ensure the free flow of information and implement recommendations in its National Broadband Plan, which seeks to increase speeds and the number of users in the United States.

The FCC has tried to calm market fears, saying it will tread lightly by not enforcing rate regulation and line-sharing requirements under existing phone rules.

Despite the assurances, the formal move by the FCC on Thursday could lead to legal challenges by broadband providers.

"The FCC is hosting discussions seeking a consensus on Internet-access rules and that they plan to have a whole series of stakeholder meetings," the FCC senior official said.

Monday's 2.5-hour meeting was also attended by several FCC staff including Paul De Sa, head of the FCC's Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

In addition to the phone companies, FCC officials also met with lobbyists with the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, a trade group for cable companies; Google Inc; online phone provider Skype and the Open Internet Coalition, which represents Amazon.com Inc, eBay Inc, Facebook, and Twitter, the source said.

Several sources have said discussions have focused on how Genachowski can win the battle over net neutrality -- also known as open Internet principles -- in exchange for abandoning efforts to move broadband under phone rules.

One source said the meetings have not produce any real progress and participants have not yet tackled many of the thorny issues like open Internet rules for wireless devices.

In the U.S. Congress, lawmakers are considering changes to the U.S. telecommunications law to possibly give the FCC broadband authority and better reflect technological changes.

That process could take several years to reach final legislation. Key lawmakers announced last week that they plan to hold their own series of meetings with industry stakeholders starting on Friday.

Free Press and the Media Access Project, public interest groups, expressed disappointment with the FCC and Genachowski for not being invited to the meetings.

"It is stunning that the FCC would convene meetings between industry giants to allow them to determine how the agency should best protect the public interest," said Free Press President Josh Silver said.

"These meetings seem to indicate that this FCC has no problem brokering backroom deals without any public input or scrutiny," Silver said.

(Additional reporting by Sinead Carew in New York; editing by Todd Eastham)

Copyright 2010 Reuters

by Tim Karr

by Sam Gustin

by Edward Wyatt

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is seeking to nearly double the wireless communications spectrum available for commercial use over the next 10 years, an effort that could greatly enhance the ability of consumers to send and receive video and data with smartphones and other hand-held devices.

President Obama will sign a presidential memorandum on Monday that aims to make available for auction some 500 megahertz of spectrum that is now controlled by the federal government and private companies, administration officials said Sunday. Most of that would be designated for commercial use in mobile broadband and similar applications, though aspects of the plan will require Congressional approval.

The effort embraces recommendations made by the Federal Communications Commission in its National Broadband Plan, which was released in March and encourages the expansion of high-speed wireless broadband services.

But some aspects could be opposed by television broadcast companies, which will be asked if they want to give up some of their spectrum for auction. Cable companies that have invested heavily in wired telecommunications networks could also lose from the new direction.

Proceeds from the auctions would go in part to finance the construction of improved communications systems for police, fire and other public safety agencies. Law enforcement agencies have proposed that parts of the newly available wireless spectrum be used for a dedicated broadband public safety network.

Roughly 45 percent of the spectrum to be auctioned would come from federal government agencies that will be asked to give up allocations that they are not using or could share, according to administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to upstage the announcement.

The remainder would come from unused spectrum already scheduled for auction or from broadcasters and other spectrum licensees who would be offered incentives to give up or share parts of their communications airwaves. Currently, the spectrum for wireless communications is about 547 megahertz.

Lawrence H. Summers, the director of the National Economic Council and assistant to the president for economic policy, is expected to detail the broadband effort in a lunchtime speech in Washington to the New America Foundation, a public policy institute.

“This initiative will catalyze private sector investment, contribute to economic growth, and help to create hundreds of thousands of jobs,” Mr. Summers said in a statement. “This policy is a win three times over. It creates prosperity and jobs while at the same time raising revenue for public purposes like public safety and increasing our ability to compete internationally.”

While it is not unexpected that the Obama administration would embrace some of the recommendations of the National Broadband Plan, the announcement is significant because it puts momentum behind actions that the F.C.C. does not have the authority to take on its own.

Specifically, the presidential memorandum will direct the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to identify federally controlled communications bands that can be made available within five years for exclusive or shared use by commercial companies.

Negotiations have been continuing between the White House and federal departments including defense, justice, state, Treasury and energy, which use dedicated government spectrum for official and classified communications.

The administration is expected to ask Congress to approve the use of some of the proceeds from an auction of federal spectrum to finance the upgrading of government communications equipment and systems.

Congress would also need to approve the F.C.C.’s use of so-called incentive auctions of spectrum that is already allocated to private companies, including broadcast networks. Those auctions would pay broadcast networks and others to give up unused portions of the spectrum that they license from the federal government, which would then be licensed to or shared with wireless companies.

Finally, Congress would have to designate how the money generated by auctions should be spent. The plan seeks to use some of the proceeds to build the public safety network that would allow police and fire departments from different jurisdictions to talk to one another in emergencies — something that generally is not possible now and that was identified as an issue on 9/11.

Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the F.C.C. and an Obama appointee, welcomed the administration’s initiative on Sunday. “The administration’s strong actions on wireless broadband will move us significantly toward sustainable economic success, robust investment, and global leadership in innovation,” he said.

In the long term, companies that are developing emerging wireless technologies could benefit from the greater availability of wireless spectrum, industry analysts say. Consumers also could benefit from the actions, as wireless communications continue to improve and more convenient devices are made widely available.

Some spectrum also would be made available for free, unlicensed use by start-up companies and others, administration officials said. Such unlicensed spectrum has previously helped in the development of cordless phones, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth applications.

Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge, a consumer-oriented policy group, said the interest of consumers will be most helped by auctions that help to promote competition between wireless companies rather than entrenching the dominant providers in the market.

Since the release of the F.C.C.’s broadband plan, some broadcasters have expressed doubts about the spectrum allocation recommendations. Dennis Wharton, an executive vice president at the National Association of Broadcasters, said that while expanding broadband is important, it should not be done at the expense of broadcasting, which provides free, local television service to tens of millions of Americans.

“We appreciate F.C.C. assurances that further reclamation of broadcast television spectrum will be completely voluntary,” Mr. Wharton said.

With the recent conversion of analog broadcast signals to digital, broadcasters returned 108 megahertz of spectrum to the government for auction. Some of the wireless companies that bought that spectrum have not developed all of it, leaving broadcasters wary of giving up more of their holdings to companies that might simply warehouse it, industry officials say.

Copyright 2010 The New York Times

Very little said about how this spectrum is going to benefit consumers. Yeah, they'll get "more" but is that better quality, more economical service? Hard to tell. What happened to the wired side of broadband policy under Obama recently is not encouraging for how any of this will benefit consumers.

As for new radios, most jurisdictions in Illinois are still playing catch up with the long-term costs of the fancy new Motorolas. I hope that's someone elses's money, someplace else.