After
a week of record snowfall in the nation's capital, Washington was hit by another blizzard this
week: a flurry of broadband data, ambitious goals for the Federal
Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan due to Congress March 17,
and calls for the FCC to be bold in addressing the whole issue.
The National Broadband Plan, ordered by Congress last year as part of the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, has already been delayed by a month,
but FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Feb. 16 offered a preview of the
ambitiousness of the agency's goals.
After pointing out that while the United States invented the Internet,
Genachowski said at a NARUC (National Association of Regulatory Rural
Commissioners) meeting in Washington that the United States has fallen behind in the global
broadband race. He warned that the "rest of the world is not sitting
around waiting for us to catch up."
Genachowski said the National Broadband Plan "will set goals for the U.S. to have the world’s largest
market of very high-speed broadband users. A '100 Squared' initiative—100
million households at 100M bps—to unleash American ingenuity and ensure that
businesses, large and small, are created here, move here and stay here."
While roundly applauded and praised for the 100 Squared initiative, a coalition
of advocacy groups called upon the FCC Feb. 17 to be even bolder still in its
thinking.
"The Commission should not be timid in the creation of a national
broadband policy. The plan should match the ambitious spirit of the Recovery
Act, and should chart a course that will bring the nation a world-class
information infrastructure available to all U.S. residents," Parul P. Desai
of the Media Access Project said at a press conference. "We welcome the
chairman's announcement of the '100 Squared' initiative as a crucial starting
point, and look forward to further, aggressive efforts to expand broadband
development in the months and years to come."
The groups called for the National Broadband Plan to include a set of bold
benchmarks and policies. The press conference focused on five benchmarks the
groups want included in the plan.
Benchmark No. 1: The FCC should set a goal that U.S. broadband adoption of world-class
networks equal the current rate of telephone adoption (over 90 percent) by
2020.The groups said that these networks should be available at world-class
speeds with prices and quality of service that are reasonably comparable for
all U.S. consumers.
"With one-third of U.S. households lacking broadband
service at home, the Obama administration should declare the goal of raising
the level of broadband adoption within a decade to 90 percent, which is about
the level of telephone penetration today," said Mark Cooper, director of research
at the Consumer Federation of America. "Like John F. Kennedy's challenge
to America to put a man on the moon within a
decade, the U.S. needs to rise to meet its down-to-earth
economic problem. Ending digital exclusion, which was the result of the Bush
administration's trickle-down broadband policy, would be a major social and
economic accomplishment."
Benchmark No. 2: The FCC should set a goal of substantially improving the
level of competition between providers of broadband Internet access to move the
country out of a stagnant duopoly by the end of 2012. According to the Department
of Justice and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration,
the nation's broadband market is a rigid duopoly.
"When consumers do not have adequate choice in the
broadband market, the Commission should intervene, and consider all options to
bring about competition, including some form of infrastructure sharing,"
said Public Knowledge's Harold Feld.
Benchmark No. 3: The FCC should set a goal of establishing real consumer
protections for broadband customers within 12 to 18 months.
"You shouldn't need an accounting degree to
understand your monthly bill," said Joel Kelsey of Consumers Union. "The
agency should waste no time in establishing new rules to protect consumers
against price gouging, unfair billing practices, anti-competitive bundling,
exorbitant early termination fees and undisclosed interference in consumers'
communications."
Benchmark No. 4: The FCC should set a goal of implementing new broadband
data collection standards and rules for utilizing that data in market analyses
by the end of 2010.
"Without sufficient and accurate data it
becomes very difficult to make informed policy decisions. While the
Commission has recently taken important steps to improve its broadband data
collection, that work is only just beginning," Benjamin Lennett of the New
America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative, said. "The FCC must
continue to improve its current data collection; establish new metrics and
methods to provide an accurate picture of broadband availability, competition,
performance, price and use; and ensure the data is easily accessible by the
public to encourage robust and independent analysis."
Benchmark No. 5: The FCC should set a
goal of establishing rules protecting open markets for speech and commerce on
broadband networks as soon as feasible.
"It should be impossible to talk about
the plan for universal availability and adoption of world-class broadband networks
without underlining the importance of openness," said Free Press' Ben
Scott. "The Commission should complete its current proceeding to establish
non-discrimination rules and broadly ensure all devices are open, standardized
and portable across all end-user broadband networks."
Added Desai of the Media Access Project, "The
incumbent carriers have had well over a decade to meet U.S. broadband needs, but they have
failed to do so. The FCC has more than enough data to craft a visionary and
effective National Broadband Plan, and the agency should embrace all of the
tools at its disposal to fulfill Congress' mandate. The public expects and
deserves no less."
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