The FCC has released a new report on how to bring broadband to rural America, a project that fulfills a 2008 Congressional mandate and that’s part of the larger effort to develop a national broadband strategy. As part of that effort, the FCC must still reach some form of compromise among operators, end users, and activist groups on several contentious issues including net neutrality and network management.
Until June 8 the agency is taking comments on its proposals for steering the emerging policy, giving interested parties the chance to air their views. That feedback will help shape how broadband networks are built throughout the United States, where broadband access, particularly in rural areas, has lagged badly behind other developed economies.
Earlier this year, Congress charged the FCC – which still awaits confirmation of President Obama’s nominee to be its new chairman, Julius Genachowski – with creating a national broadband strategy as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). For service providers of all stripes, there’s a lot at stake.
“It seems to me the providers that have robustly invested and continued to invest have to make sure the government recognizes the merits of previous and future private-sector investment,” said Bruce Mehlman, co-chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance, a coalition of businesses and nonprofits that aims to ensure nationwide broadband availability.
Subsidized providers ought to be pushed to be more competitive, Mehlman told VON. But if entrenched mechanisms such as the federal Universal Service Fund continue to fund traditional wireline technologies, rather than their next-generation rivals, then any nationwide broadband plan stands to fail, he said.
“If your business model is resisting change, I think you’re in a bad position,” Mehlman added.
You Can’t Please Everyone
The FCC’s mission is to draft a national broadband plan that benefits both consumers and companies. But pleasing everyone is seldom a recipe for good public policy.
Balancing the interests of all parties will be most difficult when it comes to net neutrality – the question of whether providers can “manage” their networks to keep bandwidth hogs from slowing other users’ access. While a number of operators want to implement tiered pricing, a bone of contention between neutrality advocates and free-market supporters, opponents such as Free Press and the Electronic Frontier Foundation believe eroding net neutrality will spoil the wide open, democratic nature of the Internet.