Rockefeller warns FCC over direction of broadband plan

Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller has a blunt message for the Democratic-led FCC: Don't submit a national broadband plan to Congress early next year that's complicated, esoteric, filled with grandiose ideas and dependent on protracted rulemaking to implement.

"I want to see concrete action on the day the plan is delivered," Rockefeller said recently, referring to the blueprint ordered by Congress to extend broadband service to underserved and unserved areas, boost adoption among the 33 percent of citizens who choose not to subscribe and dramatically increase the speed and capacity of broadband networks.

"A mere menu of options for the FCC and the Congress with far-off time frames isn't going to cut it," the senator added.

Sources this week described Rockefeller as worried the FCC has been lowering expectations about the plan by signaling it could be a work in progress, with additional details to be filled in as more data becomes available.

The plan, which this year's economic stimulus package requires the FCC to submit to Congress on Feb. 17, has such a tight deadline the FCC must craft it without some critical data, including a national map of broadband availability that won't be ready until February 2011.

In an interview Thursday, Blair Levin, the FCC official overseeing the effort, said he's received the message and hopes to deliver to Congress a clear set of recommendations, some of which would fall outside the agency's parameters and require approval elsewhere in the Obama administration.

"We are a resource for Congress, and we are working hard on our mandate to deliver a national broadband plan. It's an enormous challenge, but we will meet it," said Levin, a former telecommunications analyst and chief of staff to Clinton-era FCC Chairman Reed Hundt.

While the FCC expects that several proposals in the plan could be acted on quickly by the agency or Congress, Levin said the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act may require them to be held open for public comment before they can be implemented.

Nevertheless, FCC spokesman Mark Wigfield said in an earlier interview that the plan "could recognize gaps in data and [future] delivery of data."

There's growing concern within the Senate Commerce Committee that the process has become too academic. Dozens of workshops designed to provide the public with an opportunity to learn about the plan and interact with the agency have featured Ph.D.-level policy discussions that even some telecom experts have difficultly understanding.

Levin responded that the agency is keeping its eye on the middle-class Americans that Congress wants the plan to help. He underscored the many steps the FCC has taken to make the process open and transparent -- and insisted that technical subject matter requires complex dialogue.

Rockefeller, who represents a rural state where one-fifth of the households lack access to broadband, presided over a hearing last week during which he and other Commerce Committee members vented their frustration with the related $7.2 billion broadband stimulus program, which offers grants and loans to expand high-speed Internet service.

"I believe we need real broadband solutions for real people -- and we need them now," Rockefeller said.

While the United States has the most broadband users of any country, it ranks 15th globally in terms of per capita subscribers, with 63 percent of Americans subscribing to high-speed Internet service.

During an interview after the hearing, Rockefeller said he's not even convinced the FCC would deliver its national plan on time.

"Well, they say," he deadpanned, adding: "Remember when we were supposed to get a healthcare plan in June?"

FCC spokesman Wigfield responded, "It's not our call; we have a deadline."