Wireless Community

Michael J. Copps, a democratic member of the FCC, “just published one of the most fierce wake up calls”:1 for American politicians and the general public about how the USA has completely fallen behind in the broadband race. Especially now that the House and likely the Senate will see a complete change in direction and authority, its possible that some positive action can come of the heretofore impotent FCC and FTC in the matter of broadband competition and availability.

Everyone should read the “entirety of this article”:1:

bq. America’s record in expanding broadband communication is so poor that it should be viewed as an outrage by every consumer and businessperson in the country. Too few of us have broadband connections, and those who do pay too much for service that is too slow. It’s hurting our economy, and things are only going to get worse if we don’t do something about it.

bq. …

bq. How have we fallen so far behind? Through lack of competition. As the Congressional Research Service puts it, U.S. consumers face a “cable and telephone broadband duopoly.” And that’s more like a best-case scenario: Many households are hostage to a single broadband provider, and nearly one-tenth have no broadband provider at all.

bq. …

bq. To begin with, the Federal Communications Commission — of which I am a member — must face up to the problem. Today the agency’s reports seem designed mostly to obscure the fact that we are falling behind the rest of the world. The FCC still defines broadband as 200 kilobits per second, assumes that if one person in a Zip code area has access to broadband then everyone does and fails to gather any data on pricing.

bq. The FCC needs to start working to lower prices and introduce competition. We must start meeting our legislative mandate to get advanced telecommunications out to all Americans at reasonable prices; make new licensed and unlicensed spectrum available; authorize “smart radios” that use spectrum more efficiently; and do a better job of encouraging “third pipe” technologies such as wireless and broadband over power lines. And we should recommend steps to Congress to ensure the FCC’s ability to implement long-term solutions.

[1]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/07/AR2006110701230.html

Filed under: Network Neutrality, News, Policy