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 17th, 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
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.