ASKS SPECIFIC QUESTIONS ON JURISDICTION EXPANSION AND OBJECTIVITY OF THIS PENDING PLAN

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Ranking Republican on the Communications, Technology and the Internet Subcommittee, today wrote to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski regarding the broadband plan to be released next week.  Stearns, a strong advocate for relying on market forces in broadband deployment, questions the expense of developing the plan that is recommending using regulatory options rather than free markets to broaden broadband deployment in America.

Stearns references public FCC briefings that indicated only about seven million households lack broadband access. Stearns writes, “That means that providers already make broadband available to approximately 95 percent of the country.”  Stearns also calls attention to comments by Blair Levin, executive director of the FCC’s broadband initiative, that government involvement is only appropriate in those few areas where it would otherwise be uneconomic for the private sector to provide service.   

In addition, Stearns underscores the need to keep the plan from being “a political document” with “hidden agendas – such as for placeholders of network neutrality or the type of spectrum conditions advocated by M2Z, who is seeking free spectrum, and others in the past that have hobbled auctions.”

Stearns ends the letter with nine specific questions for the Chairman asking why the one-month delay in releasing the plan, what was done during that delay, who is developing the plan and how, and if the Chairman’s plan would classify broadband under Title II while the D.C. Circuit Court rules that the FCC lacks jurisdiction under Title I.  Also, and most importantly, what are the costs associated with developing this plan.

Copy of the Letter