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 Washington, DC and along the east coast, the federal government and many applicants have lost a significant amount of time involved in reviewing pending applications and developing new applications.

 

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

NATOA applauds Google for its announcement today that the company plans to build and test 1 gigabit per second (Gbps), open-access fiber-to-the-home broadband networks in a small number of communities nationwide.

 

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

2010 marks the 25th anniversary of the NATOA Government Programming Awards! Entries must be postmarked by April 9, 2010. Don’t miss out on being a part of this historic year! Get your entries in now.

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.

NATOA and Conference of Mayors, in separate filings, warn FCC not to jeopardize local government Jobs to subsidize private entities in NBP; NATOA Files Comments on Anchor Institutions

Yesterday, NATOA joined with local government and public interest groups to submit two filings to the FCC in response to a final call for comments on all issues related to the National Broadband Plan.  The NBP is due to Congress on March 17^th, one month later than it was initially scheduled. 

 

 NBP Filing - Rights of Way Filing:

 

NATOA and other local governments warned the FCC not to use the NBP to take away significant Rights-of-Way (ROW) management away from local governments or threaten municipal coffers at a time that local governments are suffering layoffs.   NATOA warned that setting “compensation” at only cost recovery would be a windfall to private telecommunications companies that would not result in any increased broadband deployment – instead, it would only result in increased profits to these companies and layoffs of municipal employees or losses of municipal services. NATOA stated that the FCC has absolutely no legal authority over local ROW permitting or fees and rejected any argument that “fair and reasonable compensation” (which is what local governments are entitled to for ROW access under the Communications Act) is limited only to cost recovery.  To support these claims, the filing included detailed economic and academic studies that both concluded that limiting local compensation for ROW fees would not lead to increased broadband but would instead result only in increasing the “digital divide.”

 

NATOA also pointed out that ROW issues are community issues – not just telecommunications issues – and the lost revenue will hurt local community resources such as schools, fire services, and police departments.  NATOA reminded the FCC of the widespread and well-publicized crisis in local and state budgets at this time and highlighted some illustrative examples such as Portland, Oregon.  Portland’s budget crisis has already required it to freeze salaries and must cut expenditures by another $8.9 million to balance its budget for this year.  If Portland lost its revenue from ROW fees and taxes, it would be devastating and would cost many essential personnel such as police officers and firefighters to lose their jobs.  Portland is only one example and is not unique.  The filing makes quite clear that if the FCC forbids communities from obtaining fair market value for the use of ROW, the impact on already strained local budgets will be severe.  Rather than taking such actions, NATOA and its co-filers recommended that the FCC establish a partnership to work with local governments to establish a best practices guide to ROW management and encouraging localities to leverage their resources for broadband deployment.

 

The full text of the ROW filing is available here.

 

Conference of Mayors Letter to the FCC Commissioners on Local Management of Rights of Way:

 

Yesterday, the United States Conference of Mayors also sent a letter to the FCC Commissioners urging them to “reject proposals that would limit local authority to manage local rights-of-way and/or would negatively impact local budgets.”  The letter pointed out that Congress intended, in the Communications Act, to leave Rights of Way to local control.  The Letter also highlighted the same budgetary concerns raised by NATOA and its co-filers.  In short, the loss of revenue from rights of way fees will have a crippling effect on cities already anticipating a budget shortfall in the next year.  This will result in layoffs, salary freezes and reductions, increased fees to citizens (who are themselves struggling in the current economic climate), and reductions in essential services.  NATOA applauds the Conference of Mayors for its attention to this critical issue for our nation’s communities. 

 

The full text of the Conference of Mayor’s Letter is available here. 

 

Anchor Institution Networks Filing:

 

In another filing, NATOA joined with a number of public interest groups to support Anchor Institution Networks.  The filing pointed out the unique and urgent need of anchor institutions (such as schools, libraries, hospitals, universities, job training centers, etc.) to obtain high-capacity broadband.  It also pointed out that the private sector has, so far, failed to address this need.  The filing urged the FCC to promote the development of these networks through the NBP by supporting “the development of a ‘Unified Community Anchor Network’ (“UCAN”), a ‘network of networks’ from which all anchor institutions who wish can receive high capacity broadband service.”  The filing also called on the FCC to recommend the removal of restrictive legislation and ordinances to the development and expansion of these networks. 

 

The full text of the anchor institution filing is available here.