White House Touts Broadband Accomplishments; Groups Call for More Detailed Access Data

Four years ago, President Bush launched a nationwide initiative to increase the availability of affordable, high-speed Internet access. The Administration's Broadband Initiative, which included efforts to expand the wireless spectrum available for commercial use and new funding to support broadband research, sought to eliminate the gaps in service that existed in many areas of the country and to improve U.S. competitiveness through its broadband infrastructure. Networked Nation: Broadband in America 2007, a new report from the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA), states this initiative has "to a very great degree" accomplished this mission.

 

External groups tracking broadband policy and use disagree with that conclusion.

 

Networked Nation cites an Federal Communications Commission (FCC) report from last year that found the over 99 percent of all U.S. zip codes received broadband service from at least one provider as of the end of 2006. Those zip codes encompassed more than 99 percent of the nation's population. NTIA also concluded that the Administration's broadband policies have been effective in increasing the quality of broadband service while decreasing the price. The report attributes these gains to the Administration's technology-neutral support for broadband progress, the opening up of the commercial spectrum, the moratorium on an Internet sales tax, and the elimination of regulatory barriers to expanding high-speed networks.

 

A new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) entitled Framing a National Broadband Policy, however, casts some doubt on NTIA's assertions and contends that the U.S. will require a concerted national effort to keep pace with broadband deployment around the world. Recent ranking from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) put the U.S. at 15th among the 30 OECD nations in broadband subscribers per capita. Also, U.S. subscribers tend to have slower connections than other countries. The report argues that the current U.S. approach, one that relies almost exclusively on the market to deploy its broadband infrastructure, may not be enough to keep the U.S. globally competitive.

 

ITIF contends that a new, farther-reaching national broadband policy is necessary to achieve affordable, high-quality broadband service throughout the country. The foundation maintains that this policy should emphasize the need for universal and affordable service, rather than increased competition since, much like utilities, the business of broadband provision has natural monopolistic aspects. The report frames a number of the debates that would likely shape the eventual form of a national policy.

 

One of the major obstacles, however, to creating effective broadband initiatives is the lack of accurate, detailed data about deployment. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a call for more granular data about broadband availability in a report last year (see the Dec. 19, 2007 issue of the Digest). The issue of improved broadband metrics also was addressed by the Pew Internet & American Life Project at a workshop in 2006, the results of which were recently released. Participants concluded that the data currently available on broadband access cannot sufficiently answer questions about the impact of new technologies and initiatives. The GAO argues that the definition of broadband needs to be updated to take into account the requirements of new applications like IPTV and downloadable video content. Also, data collection should focus on the experience of the end-user and not the speeds claimed by broadband providers.

 

A bill to add this sort of detail to federal data collection on broadband has been approved in the House and is scheduled for Senate consideration. The Broadband Data Improvement Act (S. 1492), in its current form, would require the FCC to report high-speed availability by zip code and by four-digit location code. In addition, the FCC would collect data on two tiers of broadband speed. The second tier would only include broadband of sufficient speed to provide access to full-motion, high-definition Internet video.

 

Networked Nation: Broadband in America 2007 is available at: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/reports/2008/NetworkedNationBroadbandinAmerica2007.pdf

 

ITIF's Framing a National Broadband Policy can be downloaded at: http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=118

 

GAO’s Measuring Broadband: Improving Communications Policymaking through Better Data Collection is available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Measuring%20Broadband.pdf