Public Comments Helped FCC Shape Broadband Plan, Levin Says

Industry heeded his complaints, voiced in July, that the first filings on the National Broadband Plan were a sign the FCC could be in trouble, National Broadband Plan Executive Director Blair Levin said Thursday at a conference. In the end, groups came though with filings that helped shape the plan, Levin said in what’s expected to be his last speech before release of the plan Tuesday.

"The first time I talked publicly, which was in July, I had a very simple message,” Levin said. “We had just gotten in all the filings in response to the first notice of inquiry and my response … was it was incredibly depressing. All of the filings, almost without exception … were very self serving, they were not thoughtful, they were not analytic, they were nothing more than bumper stickers and kind of laundry lists.”

His message was “the filings are lousy, if this is the best we get it will be a very bad plan,” he said. “Since that time … we have received a lot of public comment that was very thoughtful and very much helped shape our thinking.” Levin said public comments led directly to actions the commission is taking on transparency of broadband speeds and in parts of the plan that directly address the need to protect personal data.

The broadband team is completing the final editing of the plan, Levin said. “Getting the tone right is important,” Levin said. “Certainly there are aspirational goals that will be stated in the plan that cannot be achieved by the government. No one should kid themselves. The goals that are not stated are not goals that the government can, by itself, make good on."

The plan contains a chapter on implementation that proposes a “number of different strategies” to make sure the plan has the expected impact, said Kristen Kane, national purposes director of the plan. “I think you'll see … the FCC really becoming a resource to agencies in the executive branch and Congress, particularly with the ongoing and renewed focus on data collection and analysis,” Kane said. “This plan is really just the very, very beginning. The point is you don’t turn something in and forget about it."

The broadband plan’s expected focus on public-private partnerships will ne helpful in spurring broadband deployment, ITIF President Rob Atkinson said. “Where the U.S. does really, really well are areas where firms and organizations can implement IT on their own,” he said. “Where we lag behind, in health IT and energy, the smart grid, e-government, is a whole set of things where you need a public-private partnership."

The FCC is still unveiling details of the plan. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is to deliver what is being billed as a “major policy speech” Friday at 10:30 a.m. at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History on how the new plan will benefit children and families. Groups and companies continue to ask the FCC for tweaks to the plan.