FCC Broadband Deployment Draft Report Draws Industry Ire

Industry groups and wireless carriers blasted the FCC's draft broadband deployment report (see 1601070059) Friday, with some saying it's meant to pad the commission's accomplishments, and others saying it lacks credibility. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a draft of the report -- which was critical of the current speed of broadband deployment and found it isn't happening fast enough to meet a statutory mandate of the 1996 Telecommunications Act -- to the other commissioners, and added it to the tentative agenda of the commission's Jan. 28 meeting. USTelecom President Walter McCormick said in a statement Friday that because more than $75 billion per year is invested by broadband providers, network capacity is "burgeoning" and a recent FCC report shows broadband speeds are increasing (see 1512300037), "no one actually believes that [broadband] deployment in the U.S. is unreasonable." McCormick said the annual process of the broadband deployment report "has become a cynical exercise" that "eschews dispassionate analysis, and is patently intended to reach a predetermined conclusion that will justify a continuing expansion of the agency's own regulatory reach." NCTA said the report's findings "continue an alarming trend of ignoring objectivity and facts in order to serve political ends and maximize agency power," and U.S. broadband deployment has been "reasonable and timely." That the FCC released its Measuring Broadband America report during the "quietest week of the year while trumpeting" its deployment draft report "confirms that this report is more theater than substance," NCTA said in a news release. Wireless carriers also criticized the report. "It's bad enough the FCC keeps moving the goal posts on their definition of broadband, apparently so they can continue to justify intervening in obviously competitive markets," said Jim Cicconi, AT&T senior vice president-external and legislative affairs, in a statement Friday: "But now they are even ignoring their own definition in order to pad their list of accomplishments." It's beginning to look like the FCC "will define broadband whichever way maximizes its power under whichever section of the law they want to apply," Cicconi said. "This cannot be what Congress intended." Public Knowledge lauded the FCC's draft report in a news release Friday. "It appears that the 2016 Broadband Report undertakes a comprehensive examination of the state of broadband deployment in the U.S.," said Public Knowledge Staff Attorney Meredith Rose. "This finding ... will allow policymakers to take an honest look at the broadband landscape and what needs to be done to ensure" all Americans have access to quality broadband.