FCC to hammer out new DSL rules

The Federal Communications Commission is behind closed doors before its monthly public meeting trying to hammer out an agreement on new rules for DSL broadband services, said a source close to the commission.

The monthly open meeting, which was scheduled for Thursday, was postponed until Friday as commissioners work through the details of proposed new rules for DSL service.

An FCC spokeswoman would not comment on the reason for the delay, but a source said that the FCC chairman, Kevin Martin, a Republican, was trying to rally support for his proposal to reclassify DSL services, which would result in more lax regulations for traditional phone companies providing the service.

Martin has been pushing for changes to rules that regulate DSL service for several weeks. In July he circulated a proposal that would treat DSL as an information service instead of a telecommunications service, putting DSL service on the same footing as cable modem services.

The FCC ruled in 2002 that cable modem service is an information service and not a telecommunications service. The decision was upheld last month by the United States Supreme Court. If the measure to change DSL classification is approved, phone companies offering DSL service would be exempt from "common carrier" rules that require them to share their infrastructure with Internet service providers.

Martin must convince two of the other three FCC commissioners to join him in making the DSL designation. The agency is evenly split politically, with two Republicans and two Democrats. One seat is vacant.

The commissioners have been behind closed doors trying to work out an agreement that both Republicans and Democrats can support, the source said. At least one of the Democrats--either Michael J. Copps or Jonathan S. Adelstein--are likely to agree with the change in the rules if certain conditions are met, the source said.

Specifically, Democrats are looking for a transitional period where ISPs would still be guaranteed access to wholesale DSL service. They also want the FCC order to expressly state that deregulating DSL would only apply to Internet service providers (ISP) access and would not impact access to local loops from competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC).

The current rules allow ISPs, such as EarthLink, to buy finished DSL services at wholesale prices. The ISPs then sell customers Internet services, such as Web access, spam filtering and specialized content on their portals using the DSL service from the phone companies. By contrast, CLECs such as Covad, only lease the copper infrastructure from the phone companies. These carriers provide the infrastructure equipment to create the DSL service.

Another possible stumbling block in negotiations concerns the Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes phone service in rural areas and helps fund programs such as e-rate. The initial draft proposed that DSL providers would no longer have to contribute 10 percent of their revenue into the fund.

[newerawisp]

FCC IS DRIVEN BY BIG INTEREST

FCC is driven by big interest. DSL is a total Failure. This fact is shown by an ad run by Verizen starring James Earl Jones. The heavy set black actor walks past a girl, a man and a group of persons in a room asking "she gets it", "he gets it", "they get it" "why don't you get it it". Verizen has been running this ad for atleast a few years.

DSL is a fraud as is fiber optic based Broadband or for that matter the fastest T1 Lines. The reason is that the CPUs of the clients remain idle for a time that depends upon how fast your internet service is. The faster the internet service is the more is the idle time. As a matter of fact the best internet servbice is the conventional Internet service offered by AOL. But even AOL has hard time paddling ite conventional internet service. The reason is the problem that is created by the way the internet serviceis delivered. For example whe you are logged on to internet you are interrupted by movie industry that starts showing a trailer of its movie and you can't do anything about it until the movie is over and that is despite you having a pop up blocker.

Yet it decries the piracy of its movies.

All this can be changed and the idle CPU time can be wiped out by making the internet service server oriented instead of being client oriented. When this is done the multitasking and nanotechnology can be introduced. The piracy and hacking will be a thing of the past and the movie industry would not be able to interrupt the internet sessions of people like you and me. this is discussed at
http://www.newerawisp.blogspot.com/

By the way I reached this article by clicking on the tags on another blog at
http://www.fakirwirelessinternet.blogspot.com

Idle CPU time? Who cares? [eom]

[no message]

[bommai]

Makes no sense

Whatever you said in your long message makes no sense. Are you criticizing DSL over cable? I can never go back to dial-up if that is what you are referring to. My DSL has been great and will never give that up. If you are having pop-up problems and viruses that is because of Windows and Internet explorer.

[annanemas]

Must Provide Service clause should be included

Telephone companies should not be given monopoly status for products and services they're not even offering. Right to maintain exclusive network access should be an incentive for telephone companies to finally offer broadband internet service to all their customers. If telephone companies still fail to offer broadband services, they should be forced to open networks back up to competitors in areas they're not serving.