Research

IP Networks and the Public Interest

This article, which is based on presentations made before several organizations including the Community Technology Foundation of California, the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy, members of the California Public Utilities Commission, and the California Community Technology Policy Group. The article examines the origins and advisability of the FCC’s current decision to regulate IP-based Networks and services as "information services" thereby eschewing regulation under Titles II (telecommunications) and VI (cable television) of the Communications Act of 1934 as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Rural Telecommunications: What is Rural?

This article is based on research begun over the summer of 2003 in conjunction with the Great Valley Center regarding the failure of the federal government to properly and fairly define "rural" to include the vast majority of rural counties in California and other states. The definition has a profound impact on the deployment, availability and affordibility of advanced networks and services in rural California and elsewhere. Federal and state statutes and regulatory policies will be addressed and analyzed. Practical changes in existing policies will be proposed.

The Continuing Nexus between Ownership and Broadcast Diversity

This article will continue the work begun in the broadcast diversity study conducted under contract with the FCC with funding from the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council during the last years of the Clinton Administration. The study’s findings will be applied to recent Supreme Court and Circuit Court of Appeals decisions addressing the relationship between broadcast ownership policies and equal employment opportunity and diversity of viewpoint.

Universal Service: Competition Is Not Enough

This article begins with the premise that federal and state universal service policies are in imminent danger of demise. The method by which they have been funded is being undermined by wireless competition with wireline services and the adoption of VoIP. But it is the federal government’s current "pro-competition" polices as well as many state policies that are causing the bulk of the damage. Part of the problem has been the practice of stimulating competition for wireline voice services by exempting wireless, cable and VoIP services from universal service fees. This practice has been partially responsible for the rapid growth of wireless and broadband as well as the recent investment in VoIP. However, it has also resulted in an erosion of the subscriber base of traditional incumbent wireline providers who pay the fees from which universal service funds are derived. And, there has not as yet been a concomitant successful effort to revise the universal service programs to address the shortfall.