[TriLUG] OT: (slightly) FCC Chairman at UNC [summary notes]

[Israel J. Pattison]

I wish someone could have challenged him on this part:

On Net Neutrality: should the networks be able to charge content providers
for QoS on content types like video? ... Basically his answer was "We
haven't seen network providers take action like that."

We most certainly do have several good examples of network providers taking
such an action.  One comes from right here in North Carolina.  North
Carolina-based Madison River Communications was ordered by the FCC to stop
blocking VoIP ports used by third-party VoIP providers.  Here is the FCC
Order in that case:

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-05-543A1.pdf

And here is the Consent Decree where Madison River promises not to block
VoIP ports any more:

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-05-543A2.pdf

ClearWire Wireless Broadband was blocking SIP ports used by Vonage as
recently as a year ago.  Vonage had to play a silly cat-and-mouse game with
their SIP ports to maintain service continuity.  ClearWire provides a VoIP
solution similar to and in competition with Vonage.  Vonage attempted some
odd court maneuvers which may have lost them some ground.

So, what exactly does the FCC Chairman mean by saying that we haven't seen
network providers take action like that?

Israel

On 3/6/07, Cristóbal Palmer <cristobalpalmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The following is copied verbatim from my blog,
> http://pebkac.homelinux.net. If you read http://planet.trilug.org, you
> can safely ignore the rest of this message.
>
> On media consolidation: he admitted that policy changes in the recent
> past have been a "challenge" and will present further challenges. He
> said that there will be 6 public hearings and $100,000+ spent on
> studies [That doesn't sound like much, does it? That's what? Salary
> for two researchers and office space?]. I'll have to look into where
> these hearings are being held. During the question and answer session
> at the end, an audience member shared that he was an electrical
> engineer and had been on the Chapel Hill Town Council when cable
> franchises had been renewed in the late '90s. The audience member
> asserted that the process had been anything but fair. He said it was
> the least level playing field he had ever seen. This was after the
> Telecommunications Act of 1996, and he was astounded (he said) by how
> stacked the FCC rules were in favor of TWC. The town was left with no
> option but to take what TWC offered. "I don't disagree with you," said
> the Chairman. The rest of his comments basically boiled down to "how
> do we make the playing field more beneficial to consumers while
> avoiding driving profitable business out of that market?"
>
> On Net Neutrality: should the networks be able to charge content
> providers for QoS on content types like video? Should we put rules in
> place to prevent that? Basically his answer was "We haven't seen
> network providers take action like that." Also, he framed it as if
> tiered bandwidth choices [eg. 5Mbps down, 384Kbps up at one price;
> 8Mbps down, 512Kbps up at another–what I'm getting from TWC right now]
> were part of the Net Neutrality debate. A questioner at the end
> brought this back up and specifically asked him to clarify that point,
> and he seemed to have a better picture (read: logical picture) on the
> second go-round. Regardless, it seemed to me he was being very careful
> about his wording. It sounded like he was echoing Telco "concerns"
> about Net Neutrality without actually making any statements.
>
> I got to ask the very last question. The question before mine was also
> fairly interesting, so I'll repeat it here. The questioner asked if
> there were plans to introduce regulation that would control content
> provided via YouTube and other online video services. Mr. Martin said
> that no, the Commission didn't have a mandate to regulate such content
> since it was "pull-down" content. That is, consumers must actively
> seek out that content, as opposed to content that is broadcast into
> the home through TV. It was a quick answer, and one that made me
> happy.
>
> I began my question by asking if he was familiar with Yochai Benkler's
> Wealth of Networks. I'm not sure he understood that part of my
> question, but he seemed to nod in recognition. I continued, saying to
> the entire audience that I recommended the book to all, and that I
> brought it up because of the "Last Mile" question, since the book
> addresses that. My question for him, then, was what policies or
> regulations the FCC was looking at that would address the problem that
> only the incumbent Cable and Telco operations are investing in the
> "Last Mile" of broadband deployment. I specifically asked if he had
> any comments on various proposals for mesh networks. His response was
> that the FCC has made changes to make BPL easier (sorry Tanner, I
> didn't feel like I could interject–more on that later) so that local
> power utilities could, at their option, compete in the broadband
> internet space. He also said that the FCC was looking at devices that
> would operate in the "TV White Space" and allow for mesh networks. He
> explained that TV White Space is the unused portion of the TV spectrum
> that was historically not assigned so as to prevent interference
> between channels. Newer technology allows for the use of that white
> space without risk of interference. He said that these devices would
> have to be "smart" enough to listen first, identify the white space,
> and then try "talking" to neighbors.
>
> I came away with very mixed feelings. Firstly, I was happy that he was
> obviously very astute, bright guy. He knows what the issues of the day
> are, and he knows how to talk about them. Trouble is, he seemed to
> know how to talk about them at length without making real, meaningful
> statements. His response to the former Chapel Hill Town Council member
> is a perfect example. He agreed that limited choice is bad, but then
> launched into an explanation of policy that didn't describe anything
> that would meaningfully increase choice. On the other hand, he was
> clearly eager to take questions and respond to people. In fact, the
> Dean walked up to the front as he was finishing his response to the
> question before mine. I raise my hand just as she started saying
> something like, "That's all the time…" but he interrupted and asked if
> he could answer my question, since I was the only one left with a
> question. We were by my watch already two minutes over the time limit.
> That's why I felt I couldn't interrupt when he suggested BPL as an
> alternative broadband delivery method (sorry Tanner).
>
> I'm feeling bad that I didn't have more time to do my homework on him
> and recent FCC policy changes before attending the talk. I think my
> sparse notes reflect that. If they post video or audio of the talk,
> I'll link to it in another post. I'm also sour that I didn't really
> find out if he's even heard of Benkler. Who knows? Maybe he'll
> actually read it.
>
> Peace,
> CMP
>
> On 3/4/07, Cristóbal Palmer <cristobalpalmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Since at least one person found my Cory Doctorow posting helpful, I
> > thought I'd pass on another:
> >
> > Who: FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin
> > When: noon Monday the 5th
> > Where: 2603 in the Knapp-Sanders Building, home to the UNC School of
> > Government (google map via tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/2pgbyh )
> >
> > Please note that even if you can't make it, you can contribute by
> > posting a question you'd like to have asked either here or on my blog
> > ( http://pebkac.homelinux.net -- please note that new posters are
> > moderated to prevent spam). If I can't ask your question, maybe
> > somebody else can.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > --
> > Cristóbal M. Palmer
> > UNC-CH SILS Student -- ils.unc.edu/~cmpalmer
> > TriLUG Vice Chair
> > "There are many roads to enlightenment, and thus many roads back to
> > the One True Debian" --crimsun
> >
>
>
> --
> Cristóbal M. Palmer
> UNC-CH SILS Student -- ils.unc.edu/~cmpalmer
> TriLUG Vice Chair
> "There are many roads to enlightenment, and thus many roads back to
> the One True Debian" --crimsun
>
> --
> TriLUG mailing list        : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> TriLUG Organizational FAQ  : http://trilug.org/faq/
> TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/
>