WASHINGTON, March 13, 2013 - At Tuesday's oversight hearing of the Federal Communications Commission, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., on Tuesday put the focus on the portion of the Universal Service Fund designed to provide connectivity to schools and libraries, as well as on the public safety network described as FirstNet. The Senate and the agency,… Keep Reading
LAS VEGAS, January 11, 2013 - Taking the stage here at the Consumer Electronics Show, former President Bill Clinton returned to a theme that he pioneered in the Oval Office: technology has the power to accelerate economic development and improve people's lives. Whether through high-bandwidth capabilities of fiber-optic wires, or through putting cell phones into… Keep Reading
LAS VEGAS, January 7, 2013 - Netgear announced a range of broadband-focused products at the Consumer Electronics Show designed to get "the other 99 percent" of the population to use high-speed internet more effectively. The wireless router company's CEO said that his company wanted to make sure everyone has access to high-speed broadband connectivity. He… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 19, 2012 – The internet policy news and events service BroadbandBreakfast.com held its October 2012 Broadband Breakfast Club “Reforming the Universal Service Fund: What's Changing?" on Tuesday, October 16th, 2012 at Clyde’s of Gallery Place, 707 7th St. NW, Washington, DC 20001 from 8 am – 10 am. Nearly one year ago, the Federal… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, Monday, October 15th 2012 – The internet policy news and events service BroadbandBreakfast.com will hold its October 2012 Broadband Breakfast Club event “Reforming the Universal Service Fund: What’s Changing?” on Tuesday, October 16th, 2012 at Clyde’s of Gallery Place, 707 7th St. NW, Washington, DC 20001 from 8 am – 10 am. American and Continental… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, Wednesday, September 26th, 2012 – The internet policy news and events service BroadbandBreakfast.com has a new schedule for October and November Broadband Breakfast Club events. “Reforming the Universal Service Fund: What’s Changing about the Connect America Fund and the Mobility Fund” will be held on Tuesday, October 16th 2012 at Clyde’s of Gallery Place,… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, Thursday, July 26, 2012 - Last week, the fourth year of the Broadband Breakfast Club Series came to an end with a timely panel on “Bringing Broadband Adoption to the Nation’s Underserved Population.” Panelists from the private, nonprofit and state government sectors came together to discuss what can be done to promote broadband usage in… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON Thursday May 17 2012 – Nearly two years after the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s (ARRA) broadband deployment and adoption projects were funded and the National Broadband Plan was adopted, we are still dealing with 100 million Americans who do not receive broadband in the home. While 65% of the population uses broadband, only… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, Friday March 23, 2012 – On Tuesday March 20th federal regulatory administrators, state health and broadband officials and private health IT and technology experts met in Washington to discuss “Maximizing US Health IT and Broadband Investment” at BroadbandBreakfast.com’s monthly breakfast and panel discussion. In the session, the speakers agreed that there is both humanitarian and… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, January 27, 2012 – A couple weeks ago, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the FCC's Order to modernize the Universal Service Fund’s Lifeline Program. In a week where almost all of the media’s attention was focused on new technologies and innovative gadgets at the International Consumer Electronics Show, Genachowski reminded the public… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON December 14, 2011 – The FCC, the Hill and the Telecom industry has been busy over the last couple of weeks. Here is a wrap-up of the most important events. House Passes Spectrum Auction Incentive Bill After a 234-193 vote, the House Payroll Tax Extension Bill incorporated the full version of the Republican Incentive… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON December 8, 2011 – Wednesday TheHill.com reported that the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission filed suit against the Federal Communications Commission for it’s Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to reform the Universal Service Fund and Intercarrier Compensation regime. The suit, filed in the 3rd Circuit, alleges that the FCC order is “arbitrary and capricious”… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, November 25 2011 – As we all sit and digest post Thanksgiving, Broadband Breakfast can finally wrap up some stories that we have been interested in over the past couple of weeks but have not had time to get around to. We wanted to draw attention to a couple of the stories below and… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, Friday October 28, 2011. Vice President & Associate General Counsel of NCTA, Steve Morris gave Broadband Breakfast his first impressions on yesterday’s USF Reform Proposal. Morris told us: The Chairman, the commissioners, and the FCC staff, all deserve a great deal of credit for bringing this item to completion. Universal service and intercarrier compensation… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, Friday October 28, 2011. The Federal Communication Commission unanimously voted to overhaul its outdated the Universal Service Fund and reform its intercarrier compensation fund at yesterday morning’s Open Commission Meeting. The FCC predicts that an effort to expand high speed internet to rural America over the next six years, will increase economic growth by… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, DC October 24, 2011 - Forbes Mercy, President of Washington Broadband Inc and WISPA VP/ Legislative Chair shared some thoughts and comments with BroadbandBreakfast.com after our panel on “Bringing Broadband Infrastructure to Rural Areas: Where is the Progress?” You can watch the video of the panel or check out Broadband Breakfast's summary below: http://broadbandbreakfast.com/2011/10/broadband-infrastructure-to-rural-areas-is-on-the-move-at-the-broadband-breakfast-club/… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 21, 2011 – Rural broadband providers, national union members, federal agency officials and state broadband administrators squared off on Tuesday at the Broadband Breakfast Club’s keynote and panel presentations on “Bringing Broadband Infrastructure to Rural Areas: Where is the Progress?” Event Highlights
Highlights from "Bringing Broadband Infrastructure to Rural Areas: Where is the Progress?" from BroadbandBreakfast.com
Complete Program"Bringing Broadband Infrastructure to Rural Areas: Where is the Progress?" from BroadbandBreakfast.com
Keep ReadingThursday October 13th 2011 - As BroadbandBreakfast.com gears up for our panel on “Bringing Broadband Infrastructure to Rural Areas: Where is the Progress?” we have been taking some notes on the FCC’s efforts to reform the Universal Service Fund and listened in on Wednesday’s Senate Commerce Hearing on “Universal Service Reform – Bringing Broadband to… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, Thursday, October 13th, 2011 – The internet and intellectual property policy news and events service BroadbandBreakfast.com will hold its October 2011 Broadband Breakfast Club event: “Bringing Broadband Infrastructure to Rural Areas: Where is the Progress?” on Tuesday, October 18th 2011 at Clyde’s of Gallery Place, 707 7th St. NW, Washington, DC 20001 from 8… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, August 22, 2011 - The beauty of the internet has always been the disconnection of content and infrastructure. Landline phone service was a one-to-one medium. It required the phone company's infrastructure of wires and switches and telephones. Broadcast television was one-to-many. It relied upon the towers and transmitters of the broadcasters, plus a standard-issue television. Let alone the fact that today we largely watch televisions connected to wires, and largely talk into mobile phones untethered to Ma Bell's cords. There is the wealth of many-to-many communication through the multiplicity of applications that make the internet what it is today. None of this, of course, is new – until one considers Washington's subsidization schemes. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 20, 2011 - The July Broadband Breakfast Club gathered key industry experts to discuss how the Universal Service Fund could be transformed to support next generation broadband communications technologies on Tuesday. “The Universal Service Fund (USF) has done a great job in getting phone service out but now it needs to be reformed to support broadband,” said Joshua Seidemann, Director of Policy, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA).
Broadband Breakfast: Making the Universal Service Fund Into a Universal Broadband Fund from Broadband Breakfast.
Keep ReadingWASHINGTON, Monday, July 18th, 2011 – The internet and intellectual property policy news and events service BroadbandBreakfast.com will hold its July 2011 Broadband Breakfast Club event, “Making The Universal Service Fund into a Universal Broadband Fund” on Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 at Clyde’s of Gallery Place, 707 7th St. NW, Washington, DC 20001 from 8… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 18, 2011 – The FCC should consider costs and service areas of rural broadband customers as it reforms the Universal Service Fund (USF) to include broadband expansion, urged members of congress and rural telecom associations Thursday. The rural telecom associations announced at the Capitol building the inauguration of a DC-based print advertising campaign to highlight the economic harm of the FCC’s current proposal. The associations believe that USF reform as it is presently being considered would result in lost jobs, poor health care coverage and stifled innovation due to blocked access to global markets. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 14, 2011 - The Free State Foundation, a free-market think thank, assembled key industry experts Wednesday and pressed for the immediate need for reforms to the Universal Service Fund and Intercarrier Compensation systems. For the past year, the Federal Communications Commission has worked on updating the Universal Service Fund to handle the demands of broadband expansion rather than voice service. Keep Reading
Last year, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recognized the role of technology in strengthening this country’s economy by investing 7.2 million in funding into technology and broadband adoption initiatives through the Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP). Through this funding the United States can build technology infrastructures and bring low-income residents online for the first time. However, technology in and of itself is not what is important. What is important is how people, families and communities use that technology to improve their lives. What will drive adoption and sustainability? Why will someone come online for the first time? What did we learn as an industry and society in bringing the first 100M on line that can help us in bringing the last 100M online? What is the real cost benefit analysis on people having access to information that directly impacts the way they manage their health, educate their children or plan for their financial future. I challenge all of us not to look at the cost of building these networks – but rather the cost of not building it. Keep Reading
The National Broadband Plan won’t do jack until more folks in Wunderland acknowledge and aggressively address one stark truth – broadband competition is mostly a myth, expensively maintained through lobbyists, think tanks and easily-influenced politicians. Until we get meaningful competition, a significant part - though mercifully not all - of Wunderland’s policies will result in dabbling around the edges rather than a meaningful advancement of broadband in the U.S. Case in point: the misguided attempt by some of Wisconsin’s state legislators to prevent their state universities from using federal stimulus money to advance broadband is purely about AT&T clawing to maintain its near monopolistic hold over broadband there. In this and other states' legislatures we see cable and telco duopolies roadblocking federal and local efforts to get communities the broadband they want and need. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, May 25, 2011 - The Rural Cellular Association issued a statement on Monday encouraging the Federal Communications Commission to reject reverse auctions and seek Congressional authority to institute Universal Service Fund reform. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON May 20, 2011- The Federal Communications Commission held its final in a series of Universal Service Fund reform workshops, featuring key industry officials in Omaha, Nebraska on Thursday. One of the key reforms that the FCC has proposed in its USF reform proposal is the use of reverse auctions as a new mechanism for the distribution of funds. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON April 28, 2011 - The Federal Communications Commission gathered key industry experts on Wednesday to explore the different ways that the Universal Service Fund can be modernized to effectively deploy high speed broadband to rural America. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, April 19, 2011 - The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA) and the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies (OPASTCO), in conjunction with 30 state and regional associations released to the FCC their recommendations to fix the Universal Service Fund on Monday. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON March 30, 2011- The Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition assembled broadband stimulus award winners and government officials for their inaugural broadband summit on Tuesday to share solutions and success in solving digital literacy and adoption issues. The SHLBC, formed two years ago, comprises libraries, hospitals, schools, non-profit groups and corporations that seek to further broadband availability for community anchor institutions. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON March 10, 2011 - Internet2, the nationwide ultra high-speed education network, announced that it will increase the network’s speed by a factor of nearly 900. The network's existing speed is already approximately 1,000 times as fast as a the fastest widely-available high-speed residential connection. Internet2 will increase its speed from 100 gigabits per second (100,000 megabits per second) to 8.8 terabits per second (88,000,000 Mbps). Keep Reading
WASHINGTON March 2, 2011 - Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies held a panel on Wednesday on how the federal government should promote broadband adoption and access to underserved communities. The panel served as an update the National Broadband Plan, which came out one year ago. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON February 16, 2011 - Officials from the Federal Communications Commission updated the telecommunications subcommittee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners on the current state of wireless, public safety and wireline competition at the Association's yearly convention Tuesday. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON February 15, 2011 - On Monday, the Telecommunications Subcommittee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners gathered a diverse group of experts to discuss the Proposed Rulemaking on Universal Service Fund Reform the Federal Communications Commission recently issued. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, February 9, 2011 - The FCC adopted a measure during Tuesday's open meeting that lays the groundwork for revisions to the nation's telephone subsidy systems in the near-term and an eventual overhaul to transition those systems into building and supporting broadband infrastructure. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which was adopted unanimously by the Commission, draws a roadmap to reforming the Universal Service Fund (USF) and the closely related intercarrier compensation (ICC) system. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, February 8, 2011 - FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski pushed for Universal Service Fund reform at the offices of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) on Monday, a day in front of the Commission's vote to adopt a rulemaking on the issue. Genachowski began his remarks by sticking closely to the message he has… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, February 7, 2011 - Blair Levin, head of the team that authored the National Broadband Plan and Craig Settles, a leading industry analyst, debated at the New America Foundation on Monday the best way to deploy broadband to unserved and underserved areas. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, January 24, 2011 - The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV), released his legislative agenda for the upcoming year on Friday. The senator plans to prioritize three broad areas: economic security and growth, proactive homeland security and consumer protection. “In the new Congress,” said Rockefeller… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, January 20, 2011 - After 15 years of explosive growth and innovation in telecommunications since the last major revision, the 112th Congress is faced with the question of whether the law is keeping up with technology. On Tuesday, our panelists discussed whether Congress should consider another overhaul of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and whether it is politically viable to do so at 2011's first Broadband Breakfast Club. Keep Reading