FCC Slates Broadband Deployment Webinar

The FCC has scheduled a webinar for June 14 on its proposal to boost fixed wireline broadband deployment by removing barriers to investment.

That was the subject of a notice of inquiry adopted by the commission under new chairman Ajit Pai April 20. The proposal would make it easier to deploy next-generation networks by removing barriers like access to poles and rights of way at the federal, state and local level.

The proposal would loosen some of the IP transition/cooper retirement regs imposed by the commission under former chairman Tom Wheeler and asks whether the FCC should have the authority to preempt state and local laws that pose barriers to broadband deployment and whether carriers should have to get permission to "alter or discontinue a service."

The free Webinar will start at 2 p.m. and is intended for representatives of state and local governments--whose regs and reviews could be preempted in the streamlining effort, and whose cooperation in that effort will be important.

NCTA: The Internet & Television Association praised, is a fan of the FCC proposal. “We appreciate the Commission’s efforts to remove outdated regulatory barriers that can slow the expansion of broadband networks," said after that April vote.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.