In a briefing paper the city experts made it unequivocally clear: first, that "broadband is a necessity for every resident," and that having it "improves the quality of life of everyone who has access."
Other cities are also exploring how to provide universal broadband access. Like New York they believe that having broadband is as necessary as water, electricity and a telephone in an earlier era, and indeed, such broadband Internet service maybe the missing link to reinventing and renewing our cities for the global knowledge economy.
This is now a matter of some urgency. In the last few years, for example, we witnessed the "outsourcing" of several million high-tech jobs. Forrester Research predicted we would lose 3.3 million such jobs over the next 10-15 years. The University of California at Berkeley, however, said we would more likely see the loss of 10 percent of all white collar jobs over a similar period, not to outsourcing per se but rather, that this a "fact of life" in a global economy.
Twenty years ago, it was fashionable to blame foreign competition and cheap labor markets abroad for the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States, but the pain of the loss was softened by the emergence of a new services industry. Now, it is the service-sector jobs that are being lost -- and the high tech, even bio med and biotech jobs, that are being threatened.
Unfortunately, but understandably, traditional cable and telephone companies are preventing municipalities from developing their own aggressive broadband strategies. The telecom industry, long dominated by AT&T, now the so-called Baby Bells, together with the large and equally powerful cable communications companies, have joined forces to prevent any municipality from providing wired or wireless infrastructures of any kind. Their argument is that the municipality is subsidizing what would otherwise be a competitive telecommunications service. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Telecommunications today has become a commodity in the world market in which every company -- large or small -- and everyone has a stake. Telecommunications is no longer a monopoly service and almost anyone can provide it. That is why over 20 years ago we ended the AT&T monopoly and opened the floodgates to so many new computer communications firms. Now we need to again put an end to the abuses of quasi-monopoly power taking shape in state legislatures seeking to limit the freedom of communities across the country. We need also to establish new federal rules and provide incentives to get America on track with the worldwide movement to improve broadband Internet service.
In the next few months a huge battle is taking shape in the U.S. between established carriers and our cities. Some cities like Seattle, San Jose and most certainly New York know that having broadband Internet -- like water, electricity and even plain old telephone service in an earlier era -- means success, indeed survival, in this new uncertain global economy. Accordingly, they are fashioning strategies to provide access for all their citizens to the 21st century information infrastructure called broadband Internet. They know that those that fail will be the ghost towns of the 21st century.
However the established carriers far outnumber those cities in sheer lobbying strength, resources and resolve. They have already had several bills introduced on their behalf which like the bills in various state legislature either ban cities outright from initiating wired or wireless initiatives or cleverly say they are only seeking to "preserve innovation" in telecommunications which of course is limited to the established and existing interests.
Recently a bill by John McCain and Frank Lautenberg was introduced called the "Community Broadband Act" which permits cities to make some decisions about their future. Although it offers a glimmer of hope, it will fail, however, if more cities do not awaken to the global challenges they face and the role that broadband technology offers them as a vehicle for reinventing their communities and there is not a plan forthcoming from the Administration.
If ever there was a time for federal action, it is now. According to the O.E.C.D., a Paris-based governmental research organization, the U.S. now ranks 12th in the world in broadband communications behind Korea, Singapore, Japan, Canada, and Norway to name but a few.
The Bush Administration must act swiftly and decisively. The Congress and the new chairman of the FCC must likewise follow suit to ensure that America has the infrastructure of the 21st Century, and that our cities once again are allowed to retool so that all our citizens get connected.
John M. Eger, is Van Deerlin Professor of Communication and Public Policy at San Diego State University. Formerly he was telecommunication advisor to Presidents Nixon and Ford and head of the Office of Telecommunication Policy responsible, among others matters, for promoting competition in telecommunication.
