IDG News Service - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will launch more than 60 rulemaking and other proceedings in 2010 in an effort to implement the national broadband plan it released in March, the agency said Thursday.
The FCC will move forward with the proceedings even as some telecom law experts have questioned the agency's authority to implement parts of the plan following a U.S. appeals court ruling this week. On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out an FCC ruling forcing Comcast to follow the agency's 2005 network neutrality principles, causing some telecom law experts to ask whether the agency currently has the authority to regulate broadband service
But FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski downplayed the court decision's impact on the broadband plan, which focuses on deploying broadband to all U.S. residents and increasing broadband speeds to consumers and to hospitals, schools, government and other community buildings.
"The court decision earlier this week does not change our broadband policy goals, or the ultimate authority of the FCC to act to achieve those goals," Genachowski said in a statement. "The court did not question the FCC's goals; it merely invalidated one technical, legal mechanism for broadband policy chosen by prior commissions."
The Comcast decision has "no effect" on most of the broadband plan, Austin Schlick, the FCC's general counsel, wrote in a blog post late Wednesday. Many of the plan's recommendations involve areas where the FCC has clear authority, he said.
Still, in several areas, the Comcast case may have an impact, including FCC efforts to encourage broadband deployment to rural areas, to improve cybersecurity and to protect broadband customers, he wrote. "The commission must have a sound legal basis for implementing each of these recommendations," he said. "We are assessing the implications of [Tuesday's] decision for each one, to ensure that the commission has adequate authority to execute the mission laid out in the plan."
The four main broadband goals for the FCC in 2010 will be to promote world-leading mobile broadband infrastructure, to speed up broadband deployment and adoption, to foster broadband competition, and to move toward a nationwide wireless broadband network for public safety agencies such as police and fire departments.
To accomplish those four goals, the FCC will launch more than 60 proceedings by the end of the year, the agency said.
To open up more mobile broadband spectrum, the agency plans to release two orders and launch three notices of proposed rulemaking (NPRMs), including a controversial proposal to encourage television broadcasters to give up or share spectrum in return for a portion of auction revenues. The agency plans to launch the broadcast TV spectrum innovation NPRM in the third quarter of this year.
Last month I blogged about the partnerships you should build inside your organization. In keeping with that tone it's time we discussed expanding that partnership mentality to include some of the best technical resources you can ever get hold of, those are the ones that work in your neighboring cities, municipalities, counties, regions, townships etc. Come on folks, these people are already doing exactly the same things as you!
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