Wireless broadband requirements scrutinized

The mobile-phone industry urged the Federal Communications Commission not to impose burdensome wireless broadband reporting requirements on cellular carriers. Congress is considering legislation to improve data collection on the availability of high-speed Internet service.
In meetings with FCC officials last week, cellular industry association CTIA said the agency should “refrain from creating new wireless-specific reporting requirements involving arbitrary categories and . ensure that all wireless broadband customers are appropriately counted as such for FCC Form 477 purposes; refrain from requiring providers to report facilities-specific information; and reject the proposal to adopt 9-digit ZIP code reporting requirements.”
The FCC could vote this week on new broadband reporting guidelines.
Broadband penetration debate
Broadband data collection, while itself controversial and the focus of legislation on Capitol Hill, is part of a bigger debate on the state of broadband in the United States compared with the rest of the world. Democrats and public-interest groups regard the FCC’s data collection methodology as outdated and a symptom of this country’s diminishing broadband stature on the world stage, at least according to rankings by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. As such, President Bush – who promised universal, affordable broadband service by 2007 – remains a magnet for criticism by Democrats who complain the U.S. lacks a broadband policy.
“Our nation’s ability to compete in the high-speed broadband world is essential to our economic future. Unfortunately, many of our global competitors are speeding down the broadband highway while America’s broadband struggles to keep up with outdated infrastructure. But we can’t catch up without better information about existing broadband service and deployment,” House telecom subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey (D-Mass.) stated after the House approved his broadband mapping bill last November.
Markey added at the time: “This broadband mapping bill reflects the fact that current data collection methods used by the Federal Communications Commission are inadequate and highly flawed. We must have more reliable information about broadband deployment and consumer adoption as a first step in developing any comprehensive blueprint for America’s broadband future. Moreover, local planning grants will permit such communities to effectively organize to spur deployment and usage of broadband services in local areas.”
The Senate Commerce Committee last year passed a broadband data collection bill, but the measure has yet to be acted on by the full Senate.
Bush administration officials insist the OECD’s broadband penetration scorecard does not account for U.S. progress on broadband deployment and accessibility. They say market-based economic and regulatory policies have created a nurturing environment for broadband expansion in this country.
CTIA cites security issues
While wireless carriers are making inroads into the broadband market, the cellular industry accounts for only a small percentage of high-speed Internet customers otherwise controlled by Bell telephone and cable TV giants.
Now the cellular industry suddenly finds itself caught up in the high-profile broadband debate, with prospects that wireless carriers could have stiffer reporting requirements in the future. Indeed, the mobile-phone industry believes it is being singled out in the FCC rulemaking. It also claims the FCC may be unwittingly undermining homeland security through detailed reporting by carriers on the geographic location of wireless communications facilities.
“As CTIA has pointed out to the commission numerous times in other contexts involving outage reporting and disaster recovery, pinpointing the location of network facilities does not make sense from a homeland security prospective,” the association told the FCC. “Providing such data would give terrorists and other criminal elements the blueprint they need to bring down the network. In addition, the specific location of network facilities is highly sensitive commercial information that should be treated with the utmost care.”