Daily Archives: July 23, 2007

Community Broadband Act of 2007

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Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) today introduced legislation to help make broadband access universal and affordable across the country. (Read the full press release.)

Here are the big points as quoted from the press release:

  1. Sets forth that no state regulation or requirement shall prevent a public provider from offering broadband services;
  2. Prohibits a municipality from discriminating against competing private providers;
  3. Requires a municipality offering high-speed Internet services to comply with Federal telecommunications law or regulation that applies to all such providers;
  4. Encourages public-private partnerships and;
    Provides the public with notice and an opportunity to be heard before a municipality provides broadband to the public.

The good news is that I think this opens the door for open networks. I’m not sure what this will mean for statewide franchising legislation – it seems to emphasize local government, rather than statewide initiatives.

Also I don’t see a direct relationship with the spectrum auction – except that the Google letter I blogged about earlier today promotes open networks (and platforms) and as I said this seems to open that door wider (no pun intended).

Google on the Spectrum Auction

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Google letter to FCCOn Friday Google posted their “commitment to open broadband platforms” on the official blog which talks about the upcoming Spectrum Auction (we blogged about that earlier).

Google has apparently urged the FCC to consider four types of “open” platforms as part of the auction:

  1. Open applications: consumers should be able to download and utilize any software applications, content, or services they desire;
  2. Open devices: consumers should be able to utilize their handheld communications device with whatever wireless network they prefer;
  3. Open services: third parties (resellers) should be able to acquire wireless services from a 700 MHz licensee on a wholesale basis, based on reasonably nondiscriminatory commercial terms; and
  4. Open networks: third parties (like Internet service providers) should be able to interconnect at any technically feasible point in a 700 MHz licensee’s wireless network.

Hmmm – kinda interesting. Google has blogged about open networks and the spectrum auction. (The comments are particularly interesting in that post!) But I think this is the first time they have promised/threatened to put their money where their mouth is. On July 20, 2007, Google CEO Eric Schmidt sent a letter to FCC Chair Kevin Martin saying that should the “Commission expressly adopt the four license conditions requested in our July 9th letter – with specific, enforceable, and enduring rules – Google intends to commit a minimum of $4.6 billion to bidding in the upcoming auction.”