Transcript A Brave New World

Questions about broadband
• What do we do about broadband services?
– Why didn’t the ILECs deploy DSL faster?
• Could regulation be to blame?
– How do we get carriers to deploy more advanced
technologies (whatever they are)?
– Broadband seems different from narrowband, so do
the old narrowband regulatory paradigms work?
Access to the Internet
• Most common methods
– Dial-up over regular telephone line
– xDSL line
– Cable Modem
Dial up
Can be ILEC or
DLEC facilities
Telephone Office
(regular local switching)
Subscriber
(using a modem)
ISP
xDSL
Can be ILEC or
DLEC facilities
Can be ILEC or
DLEC
DSLAM
Subscriber
(need DSL modem)
switch
ISP
Using Cable Modem
ISP
Cable Headend Transmitter
Cable Modem Termination System
Subscriber
(using cable modem)
What are the regulatory issues?
• There seem to be two types of services here
– Internet access
• Dial-up, xDSL, cable modem
– Internet services
• Email, web surfing, etc.
• It is clear that Internet services are not regulated
– Information services
• What about Internet access services?
– Are they separable from Internet services? Does it
matter if the same entity provides both?
FCC’s Declaratory Ruling,
March, 2002 (FCC 02-77)
• Principles followed:
– Encourage the ubiquitous availability of broadband to
all Americans
– Broadband services should exist in a minimal
regulatory environment that promotes investment and
innovation
– Seek a national framework for the regulation of
competing services that are provided via different
technologies and network architectures
Cable Modem Service
• Regards Cable Modem Service as one unified
service, whose functions include
–
–
–
–
Internet connectivity
Enhanced applications
Operations
Customer service
• Cable operators self-provide some or all of these
functions or contract with affiliated or unaffiliated
ISPs for some or all of them
FCC Decision
• Cable modem service
– Properly classified as an interstate information
service (applies end-to-end analysis)
– Is not a cable service
– There is no separate offering of
telecommunications service
Basis for Decision
• Turns to statutory language of TA96
– Telecommunications service: “the offering of telecommunications for a
fee directly to the public or to such class of users as to be effectively
available to the public”
– Telecommunications: “the transmission, between or among points
specified by the user, or information of the user’s choosing, without
change in the form or content of the information as sent and received.”
– Information service: “the offering of a capability for generating,
acquiring, storing, transforming, processing, retrieving, utilizing or
making available information via telecommunications, . . . does not
include any use of any such capability for the management, control, or
operation of a telecommunications system or the management of a
telecommunications service.”
Not cable service
• Definition of cable service:
• One-way transmission of video programming or
other programming service; and subscriber
interaction required for the selection or use of
such video programming or other programming
service (other programming service means
information that a cable operator makes available
to all subscriber generally)
• Finds that cable modem service does not
fit this definition
Further explanation of decision
• Cable operators provide subscribers with a
single service, not with separate transmission, email, and web surfing services—
telecommunications is just a necessary element
in that service
• Applies for both “self-provision” and “input”
models
• AOL Time Warner situation is private carriage
(decides which ISPs to deal with)
City of Portland Decision
• Ninth Circuit found that local franchising
authority could not require multiple ISP access
because cable modem service not a cable
service
• Ninth Circuit found that @Home was providing a
telecommunications service
• Ninth Circuit decision based on a record “that
was less than comprehensive” according to the
FCC
NCTA vs. Brand X
• Supreme Court decision in June 2005
– Cable modem service is an information
service
– Upheld the FCC’s Declaratory Ruling of
March 2002
So What About Wireline
Broadband?
• FCC Order, September 2005
– Facilities based wireline broadband Internet
access is an information service
– Facilities based wireline broadband Internet
providers no longer required to separate out
and offer transmission as a standalone
service subject to Title II of the
Communication Act
– BOCs relieved of Computer Inquiry
requirements with respect to wireline
broadband Internet access services
• Facilities based wireline carriers can offer Internet
access transmission arrangements on common carrier or
non-common carrier basis
• Facilities based wireline Internet access service
providers had to continue to provide existing wireline
broadband access transmission offerings to unaffiliated
ISP’s for a one year transition period
• Provider may choose to offer broadband transmission as
a telecomm service to an ISP but does not have to.
• Transmission component as part of a facilities-based
provider’s offering of broadband Internet access to end
users using own transmission facilities is not a
telecommunication service under the Telecom Act
What does this all mean?
• Both cable modem and DSL are
information services
– Interstate in jurisdiction
– FCC has decided to forebear from regulation
FCC’s Internet Freedoms, 2005
• Consumers are entitled to access the lawful
Internet content of their choice
• Consumers are entitled to run applications and
use services of their choice, subject to the needs
of law enforcement
• Consumers are entitled to connect their choice
of legal devices that do not harm the network
• Consumers are entitled to competition among
network providers, application and service
providers, and content providers.
FCC wanted to add—led to
open Internet Order
• A provider of broadband Internet access service
must treat lawful content, applications, and
services in a nondiscriminatory manner
• A provider of broadband Internet access service
must disclose such information concerning
network management and other practices as is
reasonably required for users and content,
application, and service providers to enjoy the
protections specified in this rulemaking