An FCC DOC released late yesterday, the "Executive Summary" is good reading, the rest I didn't insert.
Temp'
1. One of the fundamental goals of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (the 1996 Act) is to promote innovation and investment by multiple market participants in order to stimulate competition for all services, including broadband communications services. In this Report, we consider the deployment of broadband capability -- what Congress has called "advanced telecommunications capability."
2. Increasingly, all electronic communications are becoming digital. Print, audio, video, voice, and data can all be transmitted in digital form, as collections of ones and zeros. Broadband makes it possible to send and receive enormous amounts of digital information at high rates of speed. Widespread access to broadband capability can increase our nation's productivity and create jobs. Access to broadband can also meaningfully improve our educational, social, and health care services.
3. As discussed further below, the demand for broadband capability is growing rapidly. For consumers, access to broadband capability means that many new services and vast improvements to existing services will be available. These services could include real-time video in addition to telephony, so that families that connect over the phone can see each other as well as talk to each other. They could also include the ability to download feature-length movies in a matter of minutes. In addition, access to broadband capability means being able to change web pages as fast as changing the channel on a television. As a result of these services, new possibilities will open up for electronic commerce. There may also be increased prospects for at- home learning and working at home (a special help for those who are home-bound due to age or disability), platforms for entrepreneurs to launch new information-based businesses and home- based businesses, great improvements in medical treatment, and health care at home in emergencies and for the chronically infirm -- all potentially at prices that large numbers of consumers are likely to willingly pay. Some of these services will be possible with enhancements to today's cable, telephone, and other facilities. Others, however, will require the deployment of entirely new technologies, especially in the last mile to the home.
4. As Congress directed, we intend to ensure that broadband capability is being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis to all Americans. We are encouraged that, as the demand for broadband capability increases, methods for delivering this digital information at high speeds to consumers are emerging in virtually all segments of the communications industry -- wireline telephone, land-based ("terrestrial") and satellite wireless, and cable, to name a few.
5. Congress has instructed us to assess the availability of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans, including in particular elementary and secondary schools and classrooms; and to take "immediate action" if we find that such capability is not being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely manner. We are committed to following this instruction while also promoting the deregulatory and procompetitive goals of the 1996 Act. Our role is not to pick winners and losers, or to select the best technology to meet consumer demand. We intend to rely as much as possible on free markets and private enterprise.
6. We certainly have not reached the ultimate goal that all Americans have meaningful access to advanced telecommunications services. Indeed, at such an early stage of deployment of many broadband services, it is difficult to reach any firm judgment about the state of deployment. Nonetheless, we are encouraged that deployment of advanced telecommunications generally appears, at present, reasonable and timely. We base this conclusion, in part, on the large investments in broadband technologies that numerous companies in the communications industry are making. We expect that these investments will lead, in the near future, to greater competition in the broadband market and to greater deployment of these services in a manner that is more efficient and includes all Americans.
7. Although we conclude that, at present, deployment of advanced telecommunications capability appears to be reasonable and timely, we note that this conclusion is based partly on actual deployment and partly on certain assumptions and predictions regarding the future. For instance, this Report uses actual subscribership as a proxy for "deployment" and "availability." Although we find this to be a reasonable approach, we acknowledge that it may not be a precise estimate of actual deployment and availability. In addition, the Report compares the deployment of advanced telecommunications capability to the deployment of other communications-related services. Although deployment of another communications-related technology may not necessarily furnish a perfect analogy to deployment of advanced
telecommunications capability, we believe that such empirical comparisons may be useful as one objective method to evaluate deployment of broadband. Finally, assertions of companies regarding their plans for deployment, while helpful, may not ultimately prove accurate. Given that this Report presents a snapshot at the early stages of deployment, we remain cautious about drawing definitive conclusions regarding the deployment of broadband services. We will continue to monitor the situation through annual reports and, in future reports, we hope to improve and expand upon the data we receive and our tools of analysis.
8. Where necessary, we are already taking steps, partly in proceedings described in Section V below, to ensure that overall market conditions for local telecommunications are conducive to investment, innovation, and meeting consumer demand. In another proceeding, for example, we are considering measures to promote the deployment of wireline advanced services by both incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (LECs) and new entrants. We will continue to monitor closely the deployment of broadband capability by providers using all technologies. We will not hesitate to reduce barriers to infrastructure investment and to promote competition so that companies in all segments of the communications industry will have market-based incentives to innovate and invest in new technologies and facilities. We are committed to carrying out Congress' directive to ensure that advanced telecommunications capability is deployed in a reasonable and timely manner to all Americans.
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