Yesterday, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in a challenge to the Federal Communications Commission’s new Business Data Services (BDS) regime. As you may recall, in April of last year, the FCC took the bold step of reforming the BDS rules. With this action, the Commission cleared the underbrush of unnecessary and…
Read More Bold BDS Order Borne Out in Business Fiber Growth StatisticsNetwork to Network Related Posts
The Next Logical Step in Intercarrier Comp Reform
By Matt Nodine, AT&T Assistant Vice President of Federal Regulatory Turning around an aircraft carrier, if done correctly, takes lead time, requires great care and precision, and depends on a large crew with a variety of skills, all working together in harmony for a common cause. Intercarrier compensation reform (ICC) is one such ship. Wisely,…
Read More The Next Logical Step in Intercarrier Comp ReformThe Grand Slam of Wrong
So, yesterday afternoon, Level 3 filed a three-page, single spaced letter to FCC Chairman Genachowski explaining to him that he didn’t really mean that the Comcast/Level 3 dispute is not covered by the FCC’s recently announced net neutrality rules and the press got it wrong. To do that, Level 3 set forth, in quotes, its…
Read More The Grand Slam of WrongLevel 3 is Still Trying to Make Hay
Since November 30th, Level 3 has made five filings in the FCC’s Open Internet Proceeding in which it raised “net neutrality” concerns about the agreement it had previously reached to purchase connectivity from Comcast. Yesterday, Level 3’s CEO sent another letter to the FCC and the Department of Justice in which he urged the FCC…
Read More Level 3 is Still Trying to Make HayWhat Does it Mean to Be a “Peer?”
The blogosphere continues to churn over the Comcast-Level 3 kerfuffle. Level 3 even saw fit to respond to this humble blogger in a press release (a comment on a blog, a response blog or even a to-the-point tart tweet I get, but a press release?). According to Level 3, I “missed the point completely,” in…
Read More What Does it Mean to Be a “Peer?”NewsFlash: It’s Not Really Louder Just Because it Goes to Eleven
When I read earlier this week that Level 3 was trying to elevate its peering dispute with Comcast into some kind of a major net neutrality gaffe, I immediately typed into my search engine the names Cogent Communications and Level 3 to see if I hadn’t somehow slipped into an alternative universe over the long…
Read More NewsFlash: It’s Not Really Louder Just Because it Goes to ElevenReinventing the Edsel
Among its many recommendations, the National Broadband Plan recommended that the FCC “encourage transitions to IP-to-IP interconnection where that is the most efficient approach.” Last week, COMPTEL advised the FCC that the way to achieve this objective is to apply the same rules to IP-to-IP interconnection as apply to interconnection on the public telephone network,…
Read More Reinventing the EdselPrice Regulation in the Buggy Whip Market
Throughout the course of this year’s debate over net neutrality and Title II classification, one thing the FCC consistently disavowed was retail price regulation of broadband. Indeed, price regulation should be the last thing a modern regulator would want to be associated with. It is rightly seen in most respectable regulatory establishments as a throwback…
Read More Price Regulation in the Buggy Whip MarketSisyphus, VoIP and the National Broadband Plan
One of the best things about the National Broadband Plan is that it recognizes that to achieve its goals for broadband, the FCC must finally deal with certain issues that have been on its plate for years, like reform of universal service and intercarrier compensation. AT&T has been trying, with others, to roll those rocks…
Read More Sisyphus, VoIP and the National Broadband PlanA Primer on Pumping
I’ve long thought that I could write a book about various absurdities associated with intercarrier compensation. But, as my wife has pointed out to me (repeatedly), there are no more than a couple of dozen people who would be interested in reading such a book. Since they’re probably the same couple of dozen people who…
Read More A Primer on Pumping