Regulatory

The FTTH Council monitors federal, state and local legislative activities that may affect the fiber to the home community. It also advocates Council positions and concerns on issues related to the future of broadband and the regulatory environment for FTTH services.

Choose a regulatory topic below to see recent council activity in that area.

Broadband Regulation

The FTTH Council has urged the FCC not to adopt of a principle of non-discrimination in the transmission of content over the Internet. In addition, the Council actively advocates for the removal of regulatory barriers to further deployment of all-fiber networks.

Fiber Unbundling

The Council strongly supports the continuation of the FCC's 2003 policy exempting all-fiber networks from requirements that incumbent telephone companies lease out access to their lines to other service providers.

FTTH and Broadband Stimulus

The FTTH Council was a leading voice in calling on Congress and the Obama administration to include expanded broadband deployment in the economic stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). And during the process of receiving applications and allocating funds, the Council worked to promote the "futureproof" aspects of FTTH technologies as federal agencies decided on how to shape those programs and distribute the monies.

Multiple Dwelling Units (MDU's)

The Council has urged the FCC to refrain from adopting any additional regulations to prohibit exclusives in MDU's by non-cable operators.

Municipal Broadband

Many municipalities across the country are deploying next-generation, high-bandwidth telecommunications networks as a means of stimulating economic growth and development. The FTTH Council takes the position that any entity that wants to deploy FTTH should be permitted to do so, and so it opposes the efforts of some states to frustrate these efforts by local governments.

National Broadband Plan

The FTTH Council submitted a wealth of information to the Federal Communications Commission during its consideration of a National Broadband Plan. These include two studies by the telecommunications strategy consultant CSMG -- one outlining the projected cost of wiring up the country with FTTH, and the other exploring the range of next-generation digital services and applications that will likely come about as a result of the proliferation of all-fiber networks in the U.S.

Promoting Rural Broadband

The FTTH Council advocates for public policies and regulatory approaches that will encourage rural telecom service providers to upgrade to all-fiber connectivity because we believe that people living in rural communities need the highest possible connection speeds as much as anyone else. As such, we believe a critical objective should be a Univeral Service Fund program that strongly encourages rural service providers to invest in next-generation networks.

Video Franchising

The FTTH Council believes that states should streamline the video franchising process so that fiber-to-the-home providers are not discouraged from entering new markets and bringing competitive choices to consumers with regard to video, voice and data services.