WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is concerned telecom carriers will not fill out a required form designed to determine the level of broadband deployment nationwide.
Some companies may “be doing a cost-benefit analysis of whether they should report,” said Rebecca Dorch of the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology at an April 17 seminar on the data collection forms.
Dorch believes the data collection efforts, which also will be used to gauge the level of local exchange competition, will benefit all involved.
“It benefits the industry, it benefits the policy-makers and it benefits consumers … If we deregulate too soon, we can cause harm. If we deregulate too late, we can cause harm … It’s crucial to us for us to have this information,” she said.
The FCC on March 24 adopted a five-page data collection electronic form. Form 477 must be filled out electronically and submitted to the agency by all voice telephony service providers with 10,000 customers and by all broadband carriers serving at least 250 customers. While the FCC has the power to assess fines for noncompliance, an agency spokesman did not know details of any potential fines.
The government also is encouraging smaller carriers to complete the forms, said Scott Bergmann of the FCC’s Common Carrier Bureau. “We very much want small companies to report to us. We suspect they are having success … If they are not having success, [we need to determine] what are the barriers” to their success, Bergmann said.
The information gathered from the forms, due May 15, will be used in the FCC’s second report on the status of advanced telecommunications services. The first report was based on voluntary surveys, said Bergmann.
While the FCC would like to have the forms be as complete as possible, Bergmann said the agency is aware that some carriers may not have some of the requested data. For example, he said, some carriers don’t distinguish between business and residential customers.
There is a sense among policy-makers that broadband services are not being deployed as quickly in rural areas and inner cities as they are in suburban areas and business districts.
Mobile carriers filling out the forms should count handsets, not just customers, in those cases where a single customer has accounts for multiple handsets.
