A peer-reviewed journal, First Monday released an intriguing analysis on the current state of US and worldwide broadband connectivity. Any developed nation can easily point to the necessities of Internet connectivity and access to broadband in order to drive social, commercial, and governmental innovation. Over the years Internet technology has fostered a new golden area of information and instant access to applications and services delivered at the speed of light. The initial boom of the Internet was brought on by intense investment by the US government to establish networks that then gave way to private corporations with independent regulation.
The US still has one of the most robust and built out backbones in the world but we are quickly falling behind in fiber connections while still focusing on copper lines. Compared to other developed nations the US ranks 15th in broadband penetration with limited service options in most parts of the country by local oligopolistic telecoms. Tax breaks and rate increases for the various bells promised a larger investment in "fiber-to-the-curb" and upgrade existing 100-year old copper infrastructure with fiber networks that have to this date failed to be fully delivered. As referenced in the article "… in the early 1990’s … every Bell company … made commitments to rewire America, state by state ... By 2006, 86 million households should have had a service capable of 45 Mbps in both directions ... The phone companies collected over $200 billion in higher phone rates and tax perks, about $2,000 per household.”
The majority of US homes and business only have access to one or two options for broadband connectivity and rural communities are typically only served with satellite. Federal regulation has been subject to intense political and lobbying pressures from private interests that discourage a truly openly competitive market. Former Chairman of the FCC William Kennard typified the issues of these influences remarking that regulation is “too often used as a shield, to protect the status quo from new competition — often in the form of smaller, hungrier competitors — and too infrequently as a sword — to cut a pathway for new competitors to compete by creating new networks and services.”
Not with-standing the incredible capital investment required to lay down fiber networks and associated signaling equipment the solution may lie within local municipalities. The issue is that we have capacity in the nations fiber backbone but that the US has extremely limited access line capacity. As noted above, the claims in the early 1990's by bells that symmetrical service in excess of 45Mbps is just not the reality of today due to limited access to infrastructure that connects fiber last mile to consumer premises. Large regulatory changes must be made in order to increase competition and bring millions of potential consumers reliable, fast, and fairly priced access to broadband. Intense competition spurs innovation and brings the market in line with true consumer sentiment and demand. With large blocks of wireless spectrum being freed up by the impending FCC mandate to switch to all digital broadcasts perhaps one solution will be large wireless mesh networks connected to curb-side access points. Another solution may be to encourage customer-owned fiber and ownership of access networks to home and building owners.
It is without question that Internet and broadband connectivity has developed into a national and worldwide necessity. It has driven large economic progress and fostered the creation of entirely new industries and will continue to be a large contributing force to our society. Encouraging more competition for access providers to broadband networks and fostering more local based efforts to fix the lack of fiber access line capacity are issues that we must find solutions to. Demand for multimedia and streaming applications will only continue to increase at an exponential rate. Without strong innovation on the delivery of services to the customer premises the nation that birthed a worldwide information revolution will continue to be far behind the leaders and that is simply unacceptable.
Danny Kim
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