Today, the FCC voted on rules that would apply to Internet access providers. We issued a statement from NCTA’s President & CEO Kyle McSlarrow.

“Our consistent view has been that the current ‘openness’ of the broadband marketplace can be preserved while simultaneously fostering the innovation and massive private investment needed to ensure the future growth and vitality of the Internet. While we agree entirely with Commissioners McDowell and Baker that new regulation is not necessary to accomplish that goal, it has been clear for some time that there were three votes at the Commission for rules that would go much farther than those adopted today. Thus, the question before us has been whether rules could be drafted in a manner that avoids a raft of unintended consequences and that preserves broadband providers’ ability to innovate and invest in a marketplace that justly represents a great American success story.

“As I have stated previously, months of negotiations and discussions have led to a rough consensus of rules that we believe can accomplish those goals and avoid the extreme and counterproductive demands for rate regulation, unbundling of networks, and reclassification under Title II. While we will reserve final judgment until after we have an opportunity to closely review the text of the Order once it is released, it appears that the rules themselves contain that compromise consensus.

“We would like to commend Chairman Genachowski and his staff for working in good faith toward a workable compromise on this set of issues. While, like apparently everyone else in America, this would not be the Order we would have written, we do appreciate the attempt to provide certainty and to balance the openness of the Internet with the preservation of an incredibly dynamic and successful marketplace.”

Here’s just a sample of the immediate news coverage.

• FCC Adopts First Open Internet Regulations (Multichannel News)
• F.C.C. Approves Net Rules And Braces For Fight (NYT‘s Media Decoder blog)
• FCC makes Net neutrality rules official (CNet)

Yesterday, the FCC held the Generation Mobile forum, which brought together teens, parents, educators and experts to discuss the opportunities and challenges around mobile technology use (Read about it on the FCC’s blog or the NYT‘s Bits blog).

If you have kids, you’re most likely aware that cell phones are increasingly prevalent in their lives, which then raises concerns about privacy invasions, cyberbullying, sexting, and addictive behavior. Some statistics were offered:

• 12% of teens can have a cell phone at school at all times
• 63% of teens say they’ve sent a text message in class
• 43% of kids have sent mean messages via text
• 33% of teens have received a sext message

The event is a timely reminder that technology can be very empowering, but it requires savviness and, at times, some caution.

As the cable industry has become a leader in delivering broadband to 42 million consumers, we’ve also taken on the responsibility to help parents and teachers educate our children how they can be smart and safe in this increasingly complex digital world.  Cable in the Classroom, the cable industry’s education foundation, is leading this effort; yesterday, they re-launched their website, which better represents their new focus on digital citizenship.

What is digital citizenship?

Digital citizenship brings Internet safety and security together with digital literacy, ethical behavior and civic engagement in a holistic package of curricular resources, lesson plans, activities, and research.

This concept of digital citizenship is a new one and CIC is working closely with the experts in the field to help define this idea and help deliver the resources that teachers and parents need to instill it in children.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn applauded CIC’s focus saying that:

The inclusion of a Digital Citizenship initiative is another step in the right direction, as the awareness of essential online techniques is crucial as more and more children and new users venture into the connected universe.

Working together, we can make our children responsible citizens in our newly digital world.

“Averages don’t always reveal the most telling realities. You know , Shaquille O’Neal and I have an average height of 6 feet.” – former U.S. Labor Secretary, Robert Reich.

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We continue to get new data that helps spell out the state of broadband in America, but sometimes we have to sift through the numbers to see what’s actually being captured.

While some coverage of this week’s FCC Report on Broadband Internet Access Services seems to have opted for a glass half-empty approach, (“more than two-thirds (68%) of… U.S. broadband connections tracked were too slow… to technically qualify as high-speed service”), there’s a decidedly different story if you look more closely at the numbers.

First, the report focuses on what broadband speeds consumers elect to purchase, not on availability. Second, the Report includes all available means to connect to the Internet – including wireless and DSL – in addition to fiber and cable broadband deployments.

Cable broadband is available to 93% of U.S. households, offering speeds of 5 Mbps or faster to more than 90% of U.S. households. With continued investment in the rollout of ultra-fast access built on DOCSIS 3.0, the future will only get brighter for those consumers with the need for speed. A report earlier this year forecast that D3 would reach approximately 92% of homes by 2013.

The Report’s findings do mean that many consumers have higher speeds available to them but are opting to subscribe to lower speed tiers. In part, this is just a reflection of the choices that are available. While cable is busy deploying faster speeds, we offer multiple options. Some people elect to connect to the Internet through their mobile devices. Others to want to save money by opting for slower connections. It’s important to make sure that consumers can select the scenario that works best for their needs.

As we all work together to promote broadband adoption and to expand the reach and capabilities of next-generation broadband networks, it’s good to get beyond the averages of the marketplace and take stock of some of the good news.

I was pleased to run across a new FCC survey which focuses on commercial broadband service, indicating that the vast majority of respondents are happy with their connection. However, I didn’t see any coverage of these results.

I keep thinking about a post I wrote five months ago, in which I marvel that some people never seem to be satisfied, no matter how much broadband improves or the proliferation of connected devices continues to grow. Any good news about broadband doesn’t seem to get the traction of the not-so-good.

In June, we highlighted an FCC survey entitled “Americans’ perspectives on online connection speeds for home and mobile devices.” That study found that 91% of home broadband users report being satisfied with the speed of their service. Those results were echoed by a report from Leichtman Research Group that came out that same month. Leichtman found that “71% of US broadband Internet subscribers are very satisfied with their current Internet service at home.”

Now, a new post on the FCC’s Blogband blog offers the results of a new survey which focuses on commercial broadband service.  In talking to managers, owners or IT directors at businesses with 5 or more employees, the survey determined that nearly all businesses report having at least one broadband Internet connection.

When looking at attitudes towards broadband service suppliers, 95% of businesses report being very or somewhat satisfied with their current service. In addition, 85% of businesses were not planning to upgrade their service in the next 12 months, citing the adequacy of their current connection.

Of course, this is only the beginning. The cable industry continues to improve the speed and quality of its broadband service and we all need to do more to promote broadband adoption by the general population. But we should also step back on occasion to remind ourselves of the amazing success story that broadband has already become.  The FCC’s latest survey is a nice opportunity to do just that.

I know, moment’s over – back to work.

Yesterday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski  delivered remarks about proposed FCC rules to preserve an open Internet; the rules will be voted on at the FCC’s next meeting on December 21.

As I indicated in a statement regarding Chairman Genachowski’s proposal, we are pleased with much of what the Commission will be considering.  One particular aspect of his remarks, however, is worth highlighting.

Chairman Genachowski  noted:

Our work has also demonstrated the importance of business innovation to promote network investment and efficient use of networks, including measures to match price to cost such as usage-based pricing.

This approach reflects a responsible and considered view of a fast-moving and highly dynamic marketplace but it doesn’t assume that there is any one “correct” answer.  I made a similar point last year in an interview conducted by Ars Technica’s Nate Anderson:

…Internet pricing models are now on everyone’s collective mind. Is metered and/or capped Internet the future?

McSlarrow doesn’t defend any model; he’s not even partial to metering, having happily lived under flat-rate plans himself for many years. He also won’t defend particular business plans, like those advanced by Time Warner Cable. But what he will defend is cable’s right to experiment.

“I’ve lived under a flat rate plan,” he said, “but I don’t assume… that’s it’s necessarily impossible to believe that you could have a different model in the future.”

That means experimentation, and lots of it, done in the most transparent way, with full input from consumers. Without even doing the tests, McSlarrow says there’s simply no way to know whether certain business models will work better than others.

I also wrote on this very blog:

None of us knows with certainty what works best for consumers. As broadband providers, we face daunting and ever-changing challenges in ensuring that we do our level best to provide consumers with what they want, when they want it. But our goal has been, is, and will be to communicate with our customers in an open and transparent manner; to try new models that can be used to attract new broadband users and more equitably spread costs among high and low volume users, and – at the end of the day – to let the consumer make the ultimate choice of whether new models survive and thrive or are thrown into the dustbin of history.

Even though the cable industry first rolled out high-speed Internet access in the mid 1990s, this is still a relatively young business.  While 70 million Americans now subscribe, broadband adoption continues to be a key challenge.

Some consumers don’t see the need to go online.  Others are constrained by cost.  Still others want to use the service they have in cutting-edge ways.  And the ability to pigeonhole companies and their business plans as being one thing or another is breaking down, particularly in an environment where Internet applications, content, and services change the way we behave as consumers, provide new opportunities for providers and consumers and alter how we all interact with both traditional and new devices and features.

The key point is that that we need to focus on what best serves consumers.  With all this change, it is necessary to have the flexibility to test new business models – and perhaps new pricing plans – in order to see if they make sense.

A usage-based pricing model, for instance, might help spur adoption by price-sensitive consumers at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder.  As Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett noted in a report issued yesterday, “{u}sage-based pricing for broadband would have profound implications.  At the low end, it would allow cable operators to introduce lower priced tiers that could boost penetration and help in efforts to serve lower income consumers.”

As I’ve said before, I’m not arguing for or against any particular model.  All I’m really confident about is that the marketplace is changing and that companies will have to adapt to that change.  Chairman Genachowski should be commended for recognizing the close connection between driving network investment and efficiency, providing consumers more choices, and permitting broadband providers to experiment with different business and pricing models.