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Former FCC Chairman Calls Universal Service Into Question (Part 3)
TMCnet Communications and Broadband Columnist
Calling into the question the foundation upon which universal service policy is built in the United States, a former federal communications chairman said Wednesday that regulators should embrace voice-over-IP as a means to provide communications services to rural communities.
Michael Powell, former head of the FCC, said in his keynote speech at the ITEXPO in Los Angeles that the Universal Service Fund was well-intentioned but was founded on the monopolistic PSTN network, to which he referred earlier in his address as a "complicated tin can and string."
However, Powell asked rhetorically whether the manner in which the fund is structured is designed more to protect local rural monopolies than it is to provide communications services to rural areas.
Which is not to say that universal service is a failure, according to Powell. Indeed, 98 percent of public schools in the United States are now wired for the Internet.
Instead of fearing voice over IP and determining how the technology should be regulated, Powell said, regulators should be examining its benefits to see how the technology can be utilized to achieve ubiquitous service in the United States.
"If I hear one more regulator say, 'If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck,' I'm going to shoot him,'" said Powell to the delight of those in attendance.
Touching further on regulatory policy, Powell said that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 should not be rewritten, but instead should have a 15-page companion IP statute that does not classify services. "A bit is a bit," Powell said, referencing his earlier statement that technology today, regardless of whether it's voice, data or video, can be boiled down to ones and zeros.
The Telecom Act, according to Powell, was successful on some level, but was "woefully incomplete," "voluminous," and was "not a master stroke of innovation."
"It is not a technology statute," Powell said, adding that the Act was more of a compromise between the large long distance telephone companies and their large local counterparts. "The Internet is rarely mentioned," Powell said.
Powell also reiterated his belief in the principle of "net neutrality," quickly noting that he was all for having companies that provide broadband service and own the networks recover the cost for providing their services.
"The real question is, once the consumers have paid [for broadband access], why aren't they entitled to lawful content from a willing provider?" Powell asked. "Hopefully market forces will take over."
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Ted Glanzer is assistant editor for TMCnet. For more articles by Ted Glanzer, please visit:
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