FCC Chair Plugs Plan to Open Apartment, Condo Buildings to Broadband Competition

pcmag.com:

The Federal Communications Commission is targeting a lingering paradox of telecom: Some of the densest local markets have the fewest options when it comes to broadband providers.

Fourteen years after the FCC banned exclusive contracts for internet access in apartments, many building-specific monopolies persist thanks to other cozy arrangements between landlords and incumbent providers. 

In January, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel introduced a proposal to end these incumbent-protection practices. Today she argued for this plan before a friendly Washington, D.C. audience—a conference hosted by the trade group Incompas, which represents many smaller telecom carriers. "One third of us nationwide live in apartments, condominiums, public housing or mobile home parks” Rosenworcel said. “And if you're one of them, broadband choice can be especially hard to find."

Citing reports the FCC has received since asking for comments on this issue in September, Rosenworcel said this hurts apartment and condo dwellers who pay more for crummier service but also residents elsewhere who find fewer choices in broadband. 

“It takes significant financial investment to build out a network to compete with incumbents,” Rosenworcel said. Having a customer-dense fraction of the market fenced off by exclusive arrangements can deter that investment: “An upstart ISP is going to be a whole lot less likely to take the risk," she said.

Rosenworcel did not estimate how many apartment residents are tied down by these deals. But an executive with one startup—Brian Regan, SVP and chief of staff with the fixed-wireless ISP Starry—said that while "in most circumstances, building owners and building managers realize the benefits of adding competitive