FCC overturns state laws that protect ISPs from local competition



The Federal Communications Commission today voted to preempt state laws in North Carolina and Tennessee that prevent municipal broadband providers from expanding outside their territories.

 The action is a year in the making. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced in February 2014 his intention to override state laws designed to protect private cable companies and telcos from public sector competition. Wheeler took his cue from the federal appeals court ruling that overturned net neutrality rules; tucked away in that decision was one judge's opinion that the FCC has the authority to preempt "state laws that prohibit municipalities from creating their own broadband infrastructure to compete against private companies."

 Nineteen states have such laws, often passed at the behest of private Internet service providers that didn't want to face competition. Communities in two of the states asked the FCC to take action. The City of Wilson, North Carolina and the Electric Power Board (EPB) of Chattanooga, Tennessee filed the petitions that led to today's FCC action. Each offers broadband service to residents and received requests for service from people in nearby towns, but they alleged that state laws made it difficult or impossible for them to expand.

 “You can’t say you’re for broadband and then turn around and endorse limits on who can offer it,” Wheeler said today. “You can’t say, ‘I want to follow the explicit instructions of Congress to remove barriers to infrastructure investment,' but endorse barriers on infrastructure investment. You can’t say you’re for competition but deny local elected officials the right to offer competitive choices."

 States have given municipalities the authority to offer broadband but made it difficult with tons of bureaucratic requirements, he said. "The bottom line is some states have created thickets of red tape designed to limit competition," he said. Local residents and businesses are the ones suffering the consequences, he argued, pointing to members of the two communities in the audience.

 Some businesses are forced to move to other towns for lack of better broadband, he said. Wheeler described one person who pays $316 a month "for a collage of services that includes two mobile hotspots," while living less than a mile from a gigabit network. One woman in the FCC's audience has to drive her son 12 miles to a church where he can access Internet service fast enough to do schoolwork, he said. These people are "condemned to second-rate broadband."

 Both EPB and Wilson have advanced networks but are surrounded by communities that lack advanced service, FCC wireline competition official Gregory Kwan told commissioners.

 "EPB is an island of competitive high speed broadband service surrounded by areas for the most part with single or no provider of advanced broadband," he said. "Wilson's network... is a similar situation, an island of competition surrounded by a sea of little to no options for world class competitive broadband services."
"Our focus is really about wanting to serve our neighbors who have little or no access to broadband," EPB communications VP Danna Bailey told Ars yesterday. "We’re hoping that the FCC votes in favor of our petition, but we’ll have to understand any ramifications of anticipated legal challenges before we move forward."

 Read More 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NASA’s Super Guppy Gives Mars-Bound Spacecraft A Lift

Image
Today the Orion capsule, NASA’s spacecraft designed to bring humans to Mars, starts its next phase of development at Kennedy Space Center. The remarkable part is that just this morning, that large spacecraft was at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. In order to carry Orion from New Orleans to Cape Canaveral, NASA recruited their Super Guppy aircraft. The Super Guppy has a cargo area that is 25 feet tall, 25 feet wide and 111 feet long. The jumbo plane can carry over 26 tons worth of cargo and is often used by NASA to ferry large components around the country that would take too long (or be impossible) to ship by land or by sea. The Super Guppy’s history dates back to the Apollo program. It was used in the 1960’s to carry parts of the Saturn V rocket from California to Florida. The other option NASA had was to ship rocket stages through the Panama Canal, which would often take weeks or months longer.
Read more

Dell XPS 13 2015 Review and Giveaway

Image
At Consumer Electronics Show 2015, Dell’s XPS 13 2015 edition swept the awards for laptops, particularly in the $800 price range. Considering the sheer quality of its competition, this was no easy feat. But, dude, are you getting a Dell? Read on to find out. Before going private, Dell’s sales weren’t doing great. It had slipped from the top PC seller to somewhere near sixth place in 2007. After a contested buyout in November of 2013, Dell’s future looked uncertain. However, its movements following the acquisition proved shrewd. Rather than releasing a deluge of models, as they had under public ownership, Dell refocused its efforts on building better products. The Dell XPS 13 2015 edition is part of the first line of laptops and tablets released following its departure from public ownership. The new line of Ultrabooks still use Dell’s made-to-order approach. Buyers configure their device online, selecting from a large number of parts and value-added options, with a base price of ...
Read more

Who To Follow On Twitter, According To Marc Andreessen

Image
Well-known Tweetstormer and investor Marc Andreessen has produced a list of his favorite people to follow on Twitter. He was prompted to do so by an article in The Information called “Silicon Valley’s Frontman Problem” by Jessica Lessin, who questioned if the industry leaders most often quoted by the media (she cited Andreessen, Elon Musk, and Peter Thiel) really “represent the views of the broader Silicon Valley community.” “The more media coverage Silicon Valley gets, the more important it is that other voices get heard,” Lessin wrote. (In addition to Lessin’s thought piece, New York magazine also just published an interview with Andreessen, in which he talked about the cultural changes in Silicon Valley since he arrived in 1994 and diversity in the tech industry, among other topics.) His list “only a highly abridged selection,” Andreessen (@pmarca) tweeted, but a helpful one because his public list of tech industry-related accounts has over 600 members. Since Andreessen’s ...
Read more