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The Push for a Real, No-Hype National Broadband Strategy

The Obama administration clearly sees a comprehensive U.S. National Broadband Strategy as a federal priority.

World-class broadband speeds aren't just something leading-edge computer geeks dream about. Fast broadband interconnectivity lies at the heart of American business and agricultural competitiveness. Fortunately the Obama administration clearly sees a comprehensive U.S. national broadband strategy as a federal government priority.

President Barack Obama's first major push to build a high-speed Internet superhighway across America in the form of the $7.2 billion stimulus funding announced in February may be considered insufficient by many. But Michael Copps, acting chairman of the FCC, said whatever has been announced so far is just the beginning; America can expect more doses of impetus coming from the Obama administration that will ultimately connect every citizen to broadband.

Speaking at the International Telecommunication Union's World Telecommunication Policy Forum -- a high-level international meeting to exchange views on key policy issues held on April 21 in Lisbon, Portugal -- Copps said the Obama administration is committed to every American citizen in the broadband plan that's still under formulation.

Copps admitted that the government is fully aware that America is falling behind many developing countries in its broadband reach.

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"If you go back in the course of our history, we have always managed to figure out that role with active participation of the public sector and private sector in the early days of building turnpikes, bridges and railroads, rural electricity and basic telecom. The government has always found a way to do all those things," he said.

"Somehow over the course of several years, we got away from that, but we need to go back in the past, and that's what we are doing now," he added.

According to Copps, although the American government was involved in planning infrastructure for the last eight years, there was no conscious effort to provide a stimulus because the general feeling was that somehow the magic of the marketplace would get everything done.

"But that did not really happen," he said, "and that's why we find ourselves where we are in the present comparative broadband rankings among the nations of the world."

However, he said, that state of affairs has changed. "We have a new government and we have an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that carves out a very active role for the government," Copps said. "This administration is a believer that the government has a central role to play in promoting infrastructure."

"Part of that is the stimulus of the $7.2 billion for broadband. But that is short-term stimulus. I call that the down payment," Copps said.

He emphasized the federal government's resolve to roll out a broadband plan. "In the long term, there is a commitment to formulating a strategy to get broadband to all of our citizens, and the FCC has been put at the center of this and instructed within the next 10 months to come up with a national broadband plan," he said.

And that will lead to a new plan, said Copps, as well as a longer-term investment and investment stimulus. "So the role of the government is growing, and it is not just on the economic side, but I think we will see a really proactive effort here to make this process open and transparent," Copps said.

Clarifying the doubts some have about whether the new broadband plan would include all sectors of American society, Copps said, "As we develop the national [broadband] plan we will be talking not only to the business and people, but also what I call nontraditional stakeholders

of our country, which conceivably could be every citizen.

"We want to make sure we have a citizen-friendly Internet that is free, open, dynamic and does not allow unreasonable network management," hesaid.

 

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Feedback to the FCC

Meanwhile, comments, suggestions and complaints have been pouring in every day since the FCC invited feedback from citizens to help the commission craft an inclusive broadband plan.

Some of these suggestions are eye openers about the poorstate of American broadband.

"The only broadband access available to me is over a cell phone," said Allen Cole, an Oklahoma City resident. "This is too expensive and not much faster than dial-up. We need affordable access out in the woods where no one will install telephone lines and dish is unavailable because of the trees. I cannot even get cable TV! I know as soon as the leaves come out in the trees, I will not have any TV service since all signals are digital now. We used to get fuzzy TV with analog but now when it rains our signal goes out. It is only a matter of time before the leaves block the digital picture."

Russell Parks, a rural resident of Ravenna, Ky., thinks broadband is the only way Americans can lead the world. He insists that the government should build the information superhighway, and build it now.

"Rural Americans cannot wait for the market or competition to eventually build out high-speed networks to them," he said. "It just wouldn't happen in a reasonable time at all, as we are still waiting for cable TV after 30 years. Broadband is far more important to America's ability to lead the world than to allow the broadband gap to widen and deepen. The time is now to roll out broadband and make it available to anyone who would want it. It makes no sense to let the market take care of itself while the rest of the world advances ahead, leaving the United States to catch up."

Steven Barry of Arlington, Va., expressed concerns over the country's regulatory and commercial environment and said the very definition of broadband in the U.S. must change.

"Our regulatory and commercial environment encourages far less bandwidth per dollar delivered to the end-user than in many developed countries," he said. "The economics of providing ubiquitous, high-bandwidth communication is not different in the U.S. than elsewhere. Rather it is our regulatory position that encourages far too little to be delivered to the end-user per dollar paid than elsewhere. The very definition of broadband in the U.S. is woefully short of the speeds typical in other developed countries."

Barry adds: "The FCC should transform our broadband policy and revise rules to restore a competitive environment for delivery of high-speed Internet access. A new definition of broadband, a minimum of 500 Kbps downstream and 256 Kbps upstream, must be part of the new rules to provide a useful Internet experience. Rule changes and redefinition of what broadband means is needed to naturally reduce the cost of broadband and move our country into a much more competitive position."

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According to Steven A. Zecola of Hilton Head Island, S.C., while the $7.2 billion stimulus has rekindled hopes in America's broadband communications, the FCC must ensure that the taxpayers' money for broadband deployment is well spent and the objectives of the economic stimulus bill are achieved.

"[The FCC should] specify that broadband, for purposes of maximizing consumer welfare, encompass Internet protocol communication services," he said. Broadband should have several tiers starting from 200 Kbps to 8 Mbps, in accordance with the willingness of consumers to pay for Internet access, Zecola said.

Nevertheless, perhaps no one wants America to be wired as urgently as Larry Rymal, a farmer in Joaquin, Texas, who said he is suffering heavily due to lack of broadband availability in his hometown.

"I am a cattle farmer with a four-generation farm. Increasingly my farm needs broadband for field inventory, video conferencing, etc. However, there is no cable service, no asymmetric DSL," he said. "Microwave broadband is available. Satellite Internet is, of course available, and it is what I am now using. However, the latency is so terrible that I cannot video conference. Due to online requirements for feed monitoring and inventory, I am forced to rely on older techniques, which bite into my ability to compete. Broadband is really needed for me."