Bush to ease right of way permits to promote broadband

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[Bush's proposal to streamline right of way permits on federal land to
promote broadband is a good step in the right direction. The single biggest
bottleneck to deploying fiber networks is obtaining right of ways for
constructing of the fiber networks.  If municipalities and governments are
truly keen to see greater benefits of broadband and more facilities based
competition in the last mile then new business and ROW policy models are
needed to address the current high cost of deploying fiber networks.

The Montreal CSEVM
http://www.ceriu.qc.ca/Bulletin%20infrastructures/Septembre2001.pdf is a
great example of an enlightened approach where the city owns the
telecommunication conduit and provides non-discriminatory access to all
telcos, CLECs and enterprise customers to deploy their own fiber. More
importantly while it significantly reduces the cost of deploying telecom
services for telcos, especially CLECs, at the same time it generates revenue
for the city without the acrimonious debate about what constitutes fair
right of way charges, as the telcos are not forced to use the city owned
conduit and can, if they so wish, dig up the road and deploy their own fiber
on public right of way.  It also enables new telecom business models such as
customer owned networks which, as a consequence of the city's policy has
made Montreal the world leader in customer owned networks by both the
private and public sectors.--BSA]


BUSH TOUTS ADMINISTRATION EFFORTS 
TO PROMOTE BROADBAND 
In an effort to show his administration is serious about broadband,
President Bush signed an executive memorandum Mon. aimed at streamlining
access to federal land. The memorandum will put into effect recommendations
of a federal right-of-way working group coordinated by the Commerce
Department's National Telecom & Information Administration (NTIA). In a
speech Mon. at the American Assn. of Community Colleges Convention in
Minneapolis, Bush listed govt. efforts to reach his stated goal of reaching
universal broadband access by 2007. Some of the ways the Administration
intends to meet the goal: (1) Streamline federal rights-of-way permits. (2)
Promote new technology development such as
broadband-over- power-line (BPL) technology. (3) Spectrum reform. (4) Avoid
taxation. To ensure broadband is affordable, he said, "[w]e must not tax
broadband access. If you want broadband access throughout the country,
Congress must ban tax on access." 


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