| McSlarrow's Smart Lobbying |
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Kyle McSlarrow may not yet be up to admission to the 2+2=5 club, but he's adapting remarkably well to the Democratic takeover. NCTA just awarded Jim Clyburn a "Leaders in Learning Policymaker Award." Clyburn is the House whip, a key Obama supporter, and a mas Cable needs to counter Clyburn's strong support from AT&T. That's the usually reclusive AT&T CEO Randall Stevenson, Hollis of ADE, Clyburn and Cohen of the CWA in the picture. I call it the $10M picture, for the amount of money from AT&T others likely to result from friends like this. Hollis, who ran the event, is supported by AT&T, I believe. I can't confirm the details, because although A.D.E. is a non-profit they do not report who gives them how much money anywhere I can find. He's joining with Cohen's CWA to ask for money for outreach as part of the broadband stimulus. The CWA was one of Obama's strongest supporters, so it will be almost impossible for Larry to turn their group down for a hunk of government money. (Connect Kentucky, now that they aren't getting $250M from "mapping," is the third partner.) How much AT&T has helped raise for Clyburn is unavailable data, but certainly is a large sum. McSlarrow, a hardline Republican operative from the Bush White House, has remarkable support from Democratic Congressman Rick Boucher, the head of a key sub-committee. Boucher keynoted before all the top cable people and gave Kyle an endorsement far behind the usual courtesies. Dave Rehr of NAB "resigned" after the Democrats took over, and all the other Republicans installed buy the "K Street Project" are quaking. Most gave their all to the McCain campaign. Boucher delivered a message not to fire Kyle. He seven times in his speech praised his "friend" McSlarrow. "Cable is very lucky to have Kyle representing them in D.C." "My door is always open," Boucher told the cable execs. Politicians are always nice to potential supporters, so maybe this was the way things are done in D.C. It certainly improved Kyle's chances of keeping his $2M/year job. I hope they use that access to get money to upgrade the three to five million lines who can get cable TV but not data. These are 25-40% of the "unserved" President Obama promised to reach time and again in his campaign. Almost all can be upgraded for less than $500, most to 50 megabits and higher. The telcos are asking $2,000 and even $5,000 to reach the same homes with fiber. Providing a $400/home subsidy - more than enough for most - could upgrade 4M homes with less than 1/4th of the stimulus money. It a huge proportion of the unserved. That's one of the main planks of the NoBull broadband plan. The others are wireless towers where there aren't any now (with backhaul,) more transponders for faster satellite service, and the $7.2B is enough for the President to announce in 2011 "We have multi-megabit terrestrial service to 98-99% of American homes because of my broadband program. We've also upgraded the choices for the last 1% with faster satellite service. I met my promise to the American people. Instead, Boucher promised money for backhaul, "the middle mile," a waste of federal money. Almost all the backhaul problem can be solved by simple rules for unbundling they call special access. The "middle mile problem" isn't the lack of fiber, but that the telcos who often have the only fiber charge exorbitant rates. Since they have little competition in many areas, the telcos can charge 1,000% and higher markups, killing broadband for some small cablecos and telcos. There are a few spots that don't have fiber that can easily handle the load, like islands served by microwave and Alaskan towns where satellite is the only choice. If Boucher brings fiber there, we're improving the nation's networks. But the proposals I'm hearing are $B's to duplicate what's already in the ground. It's a pretty clear choice: use the traditional special access to make sure the existing fiber is shared at a reasonable price, or spend billions of government money because the politicians don't have the courages to take on the telcos. |
ter politician. His daughter Mignon is expected to take his seat when he retires, and meanwhile will acquire credentials as an FCC commissioner.
