2013 Ratewatcher (PDF, 875Kb)

Ratewatcher Telecom Guide VoLUME 24 | FALL 2013 A PUBLICATION OF THE MAINE OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC ADVOCATE 207-287-2445 | TTY 711 | E-MAIL [email protected] | WWW.MAINE.GOV/meopa FUNDING FOR NEW BRoaDbaND IN MAINE t’s ironic that the united states — the country that largely invented the Internet — has fallen behind much of the rest of the developed world, with re- Ispect to availability, adoption, and speed of Internet service. In terms of the percentage of households that subscribe to a broadband service, the U. S. ranks 15th. To be fair, the U.S. is more geographically challenging for broadband deployment compared to a more compact and technologically-advanced country, such as Switzerland, which ranks number one in terms of the percentage of households with a broadband connection. But the U.S. also remains behind Canada, which ranks 11th and which shares some of the same geographic and cultural challenges faced by the U.S. Broadband speeds in the U.S. also nesses with fiber-optic cable. On the cost of building out broadband and generally lag behind those of other other hand, with respect to the total getting people to adopt it. In Maine, developed nations. Since speed number of wired broadband connec- nearly 10% of households — mostly depends on the technology of the tions, the U.S. is far ahead of the rest in rural areas — have no access to About the Office of the Public Advocate network, it is significant that the of the world, with over 90 million wired DSL or cable-modem broad- U.S. does not have a relatively large wired subscriptions — more than band service, a gap that is frequently amount of fiber-optic cable directly double that of our nearest competitor, referred to as the “digital divide.” The connecting homes and businesses. Japan. Office of the Public Advocate often Fiber-optic cable — strands of glass hears complaints from customers Within the U.S., Maine is a good that carry pulses of light — provides who are upset because of absence of example of the problem. Factors such the fastest broadband service. In that service at their location, the lack of as a large land area with sprawling respect, the U.S. places 7th in the competitive choices, or the limited municipalities, sparsely populated world at 13.1% while Japan (#1) has speeds available locally. The primary rural areas, an elderly population, and connected 86.5% of homes and busi- problem is one of economics: it is varied topography, add greatly to the costly to install the necessary network equipment in rural areas where relatively few customers will pay for the service. Early in the 20th century, WHAT’S INSIDE federal universal service policies BROADBAND ........................... 1–7 VOIP ....................................15–17 ensured that all Americans would Internet Rates .........................6–7 Residential VOIP have access to telephones and elec- WiFi Cellular Service ...................8 Service & Plans ....................16–17 tricity, but Internet service has, so far, WIRELESS ........................... 18–23 TELEPHONE...........................9–14 not been deemed essential enough Prepaid Wireless Plans .............. 19 Alternate to Local Phone ...........10 for such a universal guarantee of Monthly Fees Wireless ...............20 Standalone Long-Distance ......... 11 availability. Since Internet Services Bundled Plans: Residential ........ 13 Prepaid High-Volume Plans ....... 21 Wireless Lifeline—Maine ...........14 Wireless Based Home Phone ...... 23 cont’d. Funding cont’d. cannot be regulated by the states, will complete the 87% buildout by a sity of Maine, the federal Broadband even telephone companies cannot be certain date, will maximize federal Technology Opportunities Program ordered to provide service or to limit broadband support, and will also awarded $25.4 million for the con- their prices. However, various state invest millions of additional dollars struction of 1100 miles of fiber-optic and federal government initiatives to upgrade broadband facilities and cable passing through some of the are at work to address the problem service in Maine. most rural areas of Maine. The of broadband deployment, though so-called “Three Ring Binder” was CoNNECTME AUTHORITY (STATE) progress is slower than we’d like. completed in 2012. This is considered This quasi-state agency collects over “middle mile” infrastructure (between FAIRPOINT DSL EXpaNSION (STATE) $1 million per year on communica- the last mile to the customer and the When FairPoint first acquired Veri- tions bill surcharges in order to fund worldwide Internet backbone) that is zon-Maine, the Office of the Public individual broadband projects in expected to facilitate new and ad- Advocate and Staff of the Public unserved, mostly rural, areas. Inter- vanced Internet connectivity for busi- Utilities Commission (PUC) negoti- net service providers apply for the nesses and hopefully, new expanded ated an aggressive broadband expan- subsidies to fund projects to build out retail Internet service providers. sion agreement, whereby FairPoint broadband. Without these subsidies, Maine Fiber Company contributed agreed to make DSL available to 90% investments to serve in these areas private investment dollars and now of the customers connected to its would probably not be made. runs this “dark fiber” network which network within 5 years. (Verizon had CoNNECT AMERICA FUND (FEDERAL) provides service to businesses and connected approximately 63% of its The FCC is gradually phasing out service provider customers. lines.) That agreement was subject subsidies for high-cost telephone to modification when FairPoint filed NEW ENGLAND TELEHEALTH service and transforming the $4.5 for bankruptcy in 2010 and the target CoNSORTIUM (FEDERAL) An appli- billion high-cost fund of the federal was reduced to 87%. Later, we asked cant from Maine received a grant of Universal Service Fund (USF) toward the PUC to investigate the method more than $25 million from the FCC, support for expansion of broadband that FairPoint was using to calculate through the federal Universal Service throughout the U.S. Currently, larger the required percentage in meet- Fund, to build a broadband network telephone companies like FairPoint ing the targets and eventually, after connecting hundreds of large and are eligible for a share of $485 mil- substantial litigation, the PUC agreed small health care providers in north- lion in immediate support this year, that FairPoint’s methodology was ern New England. This network is still and next year, a share of $1.8 billion exaggerating its actual progress. Fair- under construction and will eventu- that will be allocated based on a cost Point appealed to the Maine Supreme ally allow high speed connectivity, model that is currently being devel- Court which ultimately affirmed the telemedicine services, and data shar- oped. The Connect America Fund PUC’s order and our position. We ing. The same program also funded will also be supporting expansion of continue to scrutinize FairPoint’s the smaller Franklin Community mobile broadband (3G/4G) services compliance with its broadband obli- Health Network. from cellular companies — currently gations. Recently, after much discus- allocating $300 million nationally. UNIVERsaL SERVICE FUND sion, the Office of the Public Advo- (FEDERAL) annually provides about cate and FairPoint entered into an THREE RING BINDEr — MAINE $3 billion in support for broadband agreement that will govern FairPoint’s FIBER CompaNY (FEDERAL/ for schools, libraries, and health care remaining broadband build-out obli- PRIVATE) In response to a grant networks. gations. In that agreement, FairPoint request from GWI and the Univer- 2 broadband Illustration by Natalie LIMITATIONS OF SATELLITE BRoaDbaND Despite recent and planned expan- claim to offer speeds of 12 Mbps 44,000 miles, there is an inherent sion of wired and mobile 3G/4G downstream and 3 Mbps upstream: delay between when a message is broadband service, satellite broad- speeds that exceed even phone sent and when it is received. This band remains the only broadband company DSL service, on average, can make it difficult to provide for option for customers in some rural in Maine. At such speeds, it should a smooth real-time voice conversa- areas in Maine. As the name sug- be no problem to stream video tion, or to play certain online games gests, this service provides broad- (watch movies or other “stream- effectively where response time is band Internet access through a ing” media over the Internet). Still, critical. Some satellite providers signal sent to and from an orbiting consumers should be aware of the have attempted to address these satellite via a dish-shaped outdoor limitations of satellite broadband. concerns by offering VOIP service antenna. This antenna is connected that separates voice data from other LATENCY Some broadband applica- to home equipment that connects to data, giving it a higher transmission tions such as voice over internet your computer or WiFi router. priority. Unfortunately, there is a (VOIP) and gaming can be negative- delay, given the distance that the Satellite broadband is getting ly affected by high latency, or the data must travel. better and faster as the number of time it takes a message to traverse satellites increases, the technol- the network. Since the data (your EMERGENCY USE As with other ogy improves, and more focused voice, for example) transmitted Internet services, satellite broad- signals provide better coverage. by satellite broadband must make band relies on electricity. Unless Satellite broadband providers now a round trip into outer space of you have a generator or a backup 3 battery, the service will not function during electrical outages. This is always a concern if you rely on your broadband provider for voice service. WaTCH OUT FOR (Traditional phone service from local phone companies has its own source of power.) A wireless phone as a backup would be a good idea. Even a $10 DaTA Caps! prepaid wireless device is a reliable E911 device if it is kept charged. In Some broadband services allow you addition, bad weather can potentially interfere with the quality of satellite to download only a given amount of broadband.

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