We've been following the Federal Communications Commission's push to use the Universal Service Fund to support rural broadband. Now a consumer group says high-bandwidth websites should have to pay into the fund. Mark Cooper, director of research for the Consumer Federation of America, says it "would be 'legitimate' to force Netflix and other high-bandwidth companies to contribute to the fund," Sara Jerome of The Hill reports. Copper explained, "The Internet is not an infant industry anymore. It can certainly bear the burden of making sure that wires and the communications mediums are there."
Rural telecommunications companies have long said big Internet users should have to contribute to the fund. "Netflix takes up about 10 percent of every telco's bandwidth," Shirley Bloomfield, chief executive of the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, told Jerome. Taxing high-bandwidth websites may seem foreign to the current structure of the Internet, but it is a move that has precedent, Cooper says. "The exact same logic that was in used in the old days for whacking a toll could actually be used to impose legitimate costs on high-bandwidth users and say 'that's discretionary consumption,'" he told Jerome. "But we have difficulty bringing ourselves to do that." (Read more)
The Universal Service Fund wasn't the only area of rural broadband making news this week. Mandating wireless data roaming could be key to increasing mobile broadband, says the Rural Cellular Association. "Voice roaming is already mandatory, but data roaming (which includes wireless broadband) is not," Jerome reports. The FCC is considering a data roaming requirement. Rural telecommunications companies say without a data roaming mandate they have a difficult time entering into roaming agreements with bigger providers.
"The entire wireless industry with the exception of Verizon Wireless and AT&T agrees with the National Broadband Plan that an automatic data roaming obligation is in the public interest," said Steven Berry, president of RCA. Mandating data roaming could help save or create almost 117,000 jobs by increasing broadband availability in rural areas, says a report released by RCA Thursday. (Read more)
Rural telecommunications companies have long said big Internet users should have to contribute to the fund. "Netflix takes up about 10 percent of every telco's bandwidth," Shirley Bloomfield, chief executive of the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, told Jerome. Taxing high-bandwidth websites may seem foreign to the current structure of the Internet, but it is a move that has precedent, Cooper says. "The exact same logic that was in used in the old days for whacking a toll could actually be used to impose legitimate costs on high-bandwidth users and say 'that's discretionary consumption,'" he told Jerome. "But we have difficulty bringing ourselves to do that." (Read more)
The Universal Service Fund wasn't the only area of rural broadband making news this week. Mandating wireless data roaming could be key to increasing mobile broadband, says the Rural Cellular Association. "Voice roaming is already mandatory, but data roaming (which includes wireless broadband) is not," Jerome reports. The FCC is considering a data roaming requirement. Rural telecommunications companies say without a data roaming mandate they have a difficult time entering into roaming agreements with bigger providers.
"The entire wireless industry with the exception of Verizon Wireless and AT&T agrees with the National Broadband Plan that an automatic data roaming obligation is in the public interest," said Steven Berry, president of RCA. Mandating data roaming could help save or create almost 117,000 jobs by increasing broadband availability in rural areas, says a report released by RCA Thursday. (Read more)
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