NATOA promotes community interests in communications. A national trade association based in Alexandria, VA , NATOA represents local government jurisdictions and consortiums, including elected and appointed officials and staff, who oversee communications and cable television franchising.
Upcoming Events
- April 12,2010 - eNATOA - Review of the FCC's National Broadband Plan
- May 10,2010 - eNATOA - Myths of Municipal Network Failures
- June 14,2010 - eNATOA - Maintaining I-Net or PEG in a New Regulatory Environment: How Do We Maintain Use and Funding?
- July 12,2010 - eNATOA - Forecasting and Planning for Wireless Communications Demands while making Revenue for your Municipality
- August 9,2010 - eNATOA - Broadband Public Safety Updates
Top Issues
NATOA Joins Other Local Government Associations in Letter to the Congressional Leadership on Rights-of-Way in the National Broadband Plan
Yesterday, NATOA joined with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, the Government Finance Officers Association, the International City/County Management Association, and the International Municipal Lawyers Association in sending a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
» More…
A Good Couple of Weeks for the CAP Act – But More Help Needed
The CAP Act (H.R. 3745) was introduced by Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) last October to help protect PEG channels. The passage of the CAP Act has been one of NATOA’s top priorities over the last few months. In the past month, the CAP Act has gained a lot of momentum. Since the beginning of February, the CAP Act has received six new co-sponsors bringing the total to 19.
» More…
NTIA and RUS Extend BTOP and BIP Deadlines for Infrastructure Projects
Today, NTIA and RUS released a statement extending the deadlines for BTOP and BIP applications for infrastructure projects. The previous deadline was March 15th. NTIA extended the deadline for BTOP Comprehensive Community Infrastructure projects to March 26, 2010. RUS extended the deadline for BIP infrastructure projects to March 29, 2010.
» More…
Press Release: NATOA Applauds FCC’s National Broadband Plan
Today the FCC publicly
released the National Broadband Plan as directed by Congress through the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. While NATOA is still in the process
of reviewing the full plan and while we do have some issues with some
claims made in the plan, generally our initial impressions are favorable and we
applaud the FCC for its hard work in the development of the Plan. NATOA
and the local governments it represents intend to work with the FCC to ensure
that the Plan’s proposals and recommendations result in the
“NATOA has long called for
increased national planning for more, better broadband, and we are pleased to
see this day come when the nation has a direction forward. Local
governments look forward to working in partnership with our federal, state, and
private sector counterparts in implementing our broadband future,” said NATOA
President Ken Fellman.
NATOA believes that the
National Broadband Plan is a significant step forward to universal broadband
access across the country. Local governments know as well as anyone that
high capacity broadband is critical to our communities including for economic
development, education, health care, civic engagement, emergency services, and
more. We believe that the more broadband availability will benefit our
citizens and our country and we support the FCC, the Administration, and
Congress in seeing the Plan through to completion.
NATOA Support for
Specific Elements of the Plan:
Coordinating Entity
to Support, Serve, and Facilitate Service to Anchors:
NATOA supports the FCC’s
recommendation s in 8.22 calling for the development of a
coordinating entity to organize, negotiate for, and serve community anchor
institutions throughout the country, at the local, regional, and national
levels. We are pleased that the FCC has recognized the importance of high
bandwidth service to all anchor institutions, including schools, libraries,
public health, public safety, and government facilities and that the FCC has
recognized that local government participation in the development, management,
and operation of the coordinating entity is essential.
Municipal Broadband
Networks:
NATOA supports the FCC’s
call in Recommendation 8:19 for the removal of state barriers to the
deployment of municipal broadband networks. Currently, 18 states have
laws that prevent local governments and their partners from meeting the
broadband needs of their communities. We agree with the FCC’s approach of
increasing competition in broadband networks regardless of who is deploying
them.
Rights-of-Way:
NATOA will support
the FCC’s proposal regarding public rights-of-way.
Se lf-interested commercial carriers put a tremendous amount of pressure
on the FCC to use the Plan as a vehicle for undermining local management of
rights-of-way and the setting of rights-of-way fees , but the
FCC listened to the calls of local government and public interest organizations
who urged them not to take such action. We agree with the FCC that the
development of an intergovernmental task force of federal, state, local, and
tribal officials to examine current rights-of-way practices and develop a best
practices guide is the proper way to examine the issue. Local
governments have always been mindful of the societal benefits of
broadband deployment, and we look forward to setting the record straight on
that issue. We also look forward to working with the FCC
to determine the specific contours of the task force so as to maximize its
effectiveness. NATOA believes the task force’s consideration of
rights-of-way access and compensation issues, and processes for resolving
disputes, must be consistent federal law, and we intend to work with the task
force to address these issues in this context. We trust that the FCC
will not prejudge the work of the task force by acting hastily on the pending
Level 3 petition before the task force has a chance to complete its duty.
Public Safety:
NATOA supports the
FCC’s Recommendation 16.1 calling for a national interoperable public
safety broadband network. It is far past time that such a network
exists. We are also pleased that the NBP recognizes that additional
resources beyond spectrum are needed to make such a network a
reality. NATOA and its members are prepared to work with the FCC to
examine the details of the proposal.
Transparency:
We applaud the FCC’s
decision to continue its data driven examination into the state of broadband
competition in the
NATOA Coordinates Letter to NTIA and RUS Requesting Extension of BTOP and BIP Application Deadlines
On Friday, NATOA sent a
letter to NTIA Administrator Assistant Secretary Lawrence Strickling and RUS Administrator
Jonathan Adelstein on behalf of a number of local government and public
interest entities.
The letter requests that
NTIA and RUS extend the application deadline for BTOP and BIP from March 15,
2010 to April 30, 2010. The letter pointed out that because some
applications still pending from Round 1 may not have been finally resolved
until the end of February, the current deadline does not give many applicants
adequate time to develop high-quality applications. In addition, due to
the extreme winter weather experienced in
NATOA members should remember
that, at this time, applications are still due by March 15th and should plan
accordingly. However, if our request for an extension is granted, we will
alert you immediately.
The full text of the letter is available here.
NATOA Applauds Google’s Plans for Fiber Broadband Networks
As the company explained, its “goal is to
experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better and faster for
everyone.” The pilot networks will deliver high-capacity, competitively priced
service to up to 500,000 people.
“NATOA and its members are pleased to see
Google’s significant commitment to working with localities to take steps toward
solving the nation’s broadband deficit,” said Tonya Rideout, NATOA’s acting
executive director. “Local governments have been creatively and actively trying
to meet their urban, suburban, and rural communities’ broadband needs for more
than 15 years. We welcome collaboration with Google.”
NATOA is particularly pleased that Google plans
to work with local governments and respect land use ordinances and other local
requirements. Further, the company’s decision to target the emerging
international standard for broadband speeds and its commitment to true open
access, allowing multiple operators to compete over the same platform,
represent a welcome embrace of best practices in network development.
NATOA is the national association that
represents local governments on communications matters and promotes community
interests in communications. NATOA
members have worked with private sector partners to facilitate broadband
deployment in their communities for more than a decade. In addition, hundreds of NATOA members have
built and operate fiber optic networks that provide high-bandwidth, secure
communications to key community anchor institutions, such as schools,
libraries, and public safety.
Contact: Acting Executive Director Tonya
Rideout, 703.519.8035.
2010 Government Programming Awards Live
For more information, visit http://natoa.org/awards/gpa.html.
NATOA Files Reply Comments on Petition for Reconsideration
Yesterday, NATOA was joined by
the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, the National
Association of Counties, the American Planning Association, and the City of
Laredo, Texas in filing Reply Comments with the FCC responding to the
opposition to our Petition for Reconsideration or Clarification. Our
Petition requested reconsideration of a specific part of the FCC’s recent “shot
clock” order. Specifically, we objected to a 30 day deadline on a local
government’s ability to toll the shot clock when an application is found to be
incomplete. We also objected to the fact that facial completeness
appeared to be the only issue that could allow a local government to toll the
shot clock.
The response to our
Petition was mostly supportive. However, opposition to our Petition was
filed by members of the wireless industry. Our Petition pointed out the
industry’s mischaracterizations of our legal assertions and also highlighted
instances of practical problems the 30 day rule would cause that were raised in
filings by local governments. A common theme in these filings, which we
highlighted in our Reply Comments, was that the 30 day rule does not reflect
the realities of the zoning application review process and would ultimately
slow down the deployment of wireless facilities.
The full text of our Reply Comments is available here.

