Net Neutrality...

Wed Jul 16 01:28:01 UTC 2014

I have stayed out of much of this, but can't help myself.   Along with
everything else, you are seriously misinformed about the process of
becoming an ETC.   It is not onerous.   Please stop.   You are giving rural
ISPs a bad reputation.

On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 7:57 PM, Brett Glass <nanog at brettglass.com> wrote:

> At 05:06 PM 7/15/2014, Rubens Kuhl wrote:
>
>  Do you see Connect America Fund, the successor to Universal Service Fund,
>> as a threat to US rural WISPs or as the possible solution for them ?
>>
>
> It's a major threat to rural WISPs and all competitive ISPs. Here's why.
> The FCC is demanding that ISPs become "Eligible Telecommunications
> Carriers," or ETCs, before they can receive money from it. An ETC is a
> telephone company which is regulated under the mountain of regulations,
> requirements, and red tape of Title II of the Telecomm Act. It has to
> report to both state regulatory agencies AND the FCC. It's a classification
> that doesn't fit ISPs at all, but they would have to subject themselves to
> this heavy-handed regulation before they could get a dime from the fund.
>
> The FCC just announced a "rural broadband experiment" in which it will
> fund ETCs, but not pure-play ISPs, to build out rural broadband; see
>
> http://www.fcc.gov/document/rural-broadband-experiments-order
>
> As part of this experiment, the FCC will pay telephone companies to
> overbuild us, even though the residents of the areas in question already
> have service. This is because, as far as the regulators are concerned, if
> they do not have their regulatory hooks in us, we don't exist and any
> service we provide does not count. The "experiment" also requires
> participants to tie up large amounts of money in escrow accounts so that
> they can obtain "letters of credit" guaranteeing performance.
>
> All of this is, alas, the regulators' way of attempting to destroy those
> whom they cannot regulate.
>
> IMHO, the USF is outmoded and should be disbanded.
>
> --Brett Glass
>
>
>
>

-- 
Fletcher Kittredge
GWI
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