Public Power - September/October 2007 - (Page 40)

U.S. Lags in Broadband Development Get Cool! Transformer Cooling Fans expert technical assistance low sound levels energy-efficient motors large inventory one-piece cast aluminum blades galvanized or stainless steel guards Krenz-Vent with quality engineered, performance tested P.O. Box 187 Germantown, WI 53022 www.Krenzvent.com 262.255.2310 PRODUCTS The Standard to Which Others are Measured www.highlineproducts.com 781 736-0002 Primary Sectionalizing Cabinets Single-Phase Two-Phase Three-Phase Deferral Cabinets *Optional removable front panel on some models, which opens up the entire front of the cabinet and offers the industry’s largest work area www.baller.com/national_broadband.html. According to Gillette, public-private partnerships are part of the solution to the broadband problem. “The market is not going to do it,” Gillette said. “The incumbents’ CEOs will tell you off the record that they can’t supply widespread broadband because of the cost-to-return ratio to deliver it to small communities.” Among broadband leaders, South Korea is most like the United States in terms of economy, politics, and other factors, Gillette said. “They’ve made a public policy commitment to delivering affordable broadband in a widely applicable network. South Korea aligned the government’s knowledge resources and regulatory framework to assist companies in accomplishing this. The FCC is the key to making this happen in the United States, but I’m not hopeful that it will happen on the federal level. At the local level, we can see the partnerships that will work.” ICF is also a proponent of public-private partnerships. “Public-private partnerships have been very effective at the community level in creating infrastructure that meets real market needs,” Bell said. “Spurred by public demand, government wants broadband and can frequently save money for taxpayers or create valuable new capabilities using it. But government does not have the expertise in most cases to develop and operate the network. Business wants to deploy profitable networks and services but faces the risk of investing in markets that do not ultimately meet their goals for ROI. “A good public-private partnership works by aggregating market demand for business while shaping deployment to meet the public interest rather than just goals for ROI,” Bell said. “Such partnerships are also flexible. They range from having government contract with a company to deploy and operate, as with EarthLink in Philadelphia, to having government build carrier-neutral infrastructure and lease it to carriers— as many European communities have done successfully.” Copps agrees that bringing the public and private sectors together was part of the solution and he believes there is a new cli- mate on Capitol Hill to make that happen. He also suggested that some of the money in the Universal Service Fund needs to be used to build broadband infrastructure. Money in the fund comes from fees that telecommunications companies charge their customers to provide services to lowincome and rural customers. In his April 2006 policy brief, Atkinson suggested several steps to solve the problem. “First, broadband should be exempt from local, state and federal taxes, including universal service taxes, for five years,” he said. “Second, telecommunications companies seeking to roll out new broadband data/video networks should be subject to significantly reduced number of franchise agreements. Moreover, companies rolling out these new offerings should not have build-out requirements placed on them. Finally, Congress should seriously consider tax incentives for the deployment of new broadband networks, including allowing telecom companies to expense new broadband investments in the first year.” Baller disagrees with several of these suggestions. “Local franchising and rightof-way management practices aren’t a significant problem nationwide,” Baller said. “To the contrary, local governments desperately want entry and vigorous competition as rapidly as possible. Solving problems that don’t exist won’t get us the solutions we need and will just create more problems, like ‘cherry picking,’ deteriorating customer service, and indifference to local interests and needs.” Commissioner Copps summarized the state of U.S. broadband deployment in a Nov. 8, 2006 article in The Washington Post: “America’s record in expanding broadband communication is so poor that it should be viewed as an outrage by every consumer and businessperson in the country,” Copps said. “Too few of us have broadband connections, and those who do pay too much for service that is too slow. It’s hurting our economy, and things are only going to get worse if we don’t do something about it.” s Cathy Swirbul, based in Kansas City, specializes in writing for the power industry. 40 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2007 PUBLIC POWER http://www.baller.com/national_broadband.html

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - September/October 2007

Contents Washington Focus 10 Questions Public Power (Every) Week Training Tomorrow’s Work Force What’s in Your Wallet? U.S. Lags in Broadband Deployment Now What? For Engineers Safety Community Broadband For Governing Boards Human Resources Hometown Connections Customer Service DEED Index to Advertisers Advertisers by Category Parting Shot

Public Power - September/October 2007

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