Regional Telecommunications Planning Program
Overview
In Fall 2004, the Commission initiated the conduct of a regional telecommunications planning program. The program is following a work scope identified in a Commission Prospectus published in December 2003. The new planning program is being guided by the Advisory Committee on Regional Telecommunications Planning, comprised of representatives from local and state governments, wireline and wireless service providers, and other interested parties.
The Commission recognized that following the breakup of the Bell System and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and with the subsequent rapid advances in communications technology, telecommunications, while becoming increasingly important in the local, national, and global economies, also was becoming increasingly difficult to understand by those outside the telecommunications industry. The Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, intended to further encourage local competition, has led to the development of a "network of networks" largely beyond the regulatory purview of any level of government.
These networks also have become national in scope, organized and operated by corporations outside of Wisconsin, with priorities not necessarily coincident with the social and economic development aspirations of the Region. The nonregional character of these networks is reflected in the traffic patterns that primarily are routed outside Wisconsin even for local calls within the Region. This network structure, developed for the new packet-switched networks, is in sharp contrast to the older circuit-switched voice and data telephone networks that were highly integrated through switching centers located within the Region. The regional telecommunications planning program will explore the potential development of integrated telecommunication networks within the Region. Such networks can have a significant impact on both the economic development and the security of the Region.
A major objective of the program relates to the provision of high speed, broadband telecommunication services throughout the Region. Currently, the first generation of broadband services in the form of telephone company DSL (digital subscriber line) and cable company hybrid fiber-coaxial cable (cable modem) are available in most urban and suburban areas of the Region. These services typically have capabilities to rapidly download web pages and other large files, particularly those with high video content for residential users and to expedite large data file transfers of all kinds for businesses and other enterprise organizations. Neither of these asymmetrical technologies has strong upload capabilities for applications such as video conferencing. Fixed wireless broadband is also available in some areas of the Region. The goal of the regional telecommunications planning program, however, is to range out beyond the current networks to help plan for the next generation of broadband service capabilities (10 to 100 megabits per second for homes, and one to ten gigabits per second for businesses and industries) that will be required to compete in the global economy. Such planning must also identify the broadband infra-structure required for public needs in such areas as healthcare, education, public safety, and the environment.
Accordingly, the end products of the regional telecommunications planning process in Southeastern Wisconsin are envisioned to be three plans: