U.S. SHOULD INCLUDE WIRELESS IN BROADBAND STRATEGY, EXPERTS SAY
Consensus is building that Bush Administration needs to articulate national broadband strategy, but White House is getting varied signals on just what that policy should look like. Those contrasts were on display Tues. at forum sponsored by Computer & Communications Industry Assn. (CCIA). Twelve representatives of IT, content and telecom industries joined with FCC official at George Washington U. (GWU) Va. campus in Ashburn to debate broadband deployment and copyright protection, with many echoing IBM E-Commerce Program Dir. Greg Waddell: “By the end of ‘02, the Administration should have a clear 10-year vision for wired and wireless infrastructures [for broadband] and adopt them as part of an economic development strategy.” Progressive Policy Institute Vp Robert Atkinson agreed, although he told us after session that Bush Administration “doesn’t have the ideological ability” to craft broadband strategy that didn’t rely solely on free-market solutions. Several panelists said wireless would play critical role in broadband deployment, and with its management of spectrum, federal govt. would be key player in that rollout.
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There’s heightened sensitivity to spectrum issues on Capitol Hill, said Barry Ohlson, chief legal adviser for FCC Wireless Bureau. “Congress is playing more of a role as they become so-called spectrum experts,” he said. That is evident right now in the congressional debate over whether FCC should hold scheduled auction of 700 MHz spectrum. “There’s a big political fight right now, and we'll do as instructed,” he said: “But right now the auction is on.”
For too long govt. policy was “'Let’s make lots and lots of money off of frequency auctions,'” said GWU Prof. Joseph Pelton. He cited need for spectrum for 3G services as well as more unlicensed spectrum for services such as wireless LANs (Wi-Fi). U.S. govt. needs to do “a major redress of how we allocate spectrum,” he said, while acknowledging “there’s not enough pressure” being applied to make that happen. He also expressed concern that there was too much focus on landline solutions for last-mile problem, including laying fiber to homes instead of wireless focus: “Trying to put the country on a high-fiber diet isn’t the solution.”
Spectrum for 3G and unlicensed spectrum are 2 of 10 broadband strategies backed by Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), and Tues. ITI and National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) sent letter to House and Senate leaders urging them to pass legislation based on ITI’s 10-point broadband plan. Along with 2 wireless proposals, ITI advocates tax credits, telework initiatives, digital rights management (DRM) solutions developed by private industry, easier rights-of-way access.
IBM’s Waddell on several occasions said broadband deployment should be like Apollo space program or federal highway system, involving concerted involvement by federal govt. Attorney Robert Rini called for 3 govt. roles: (1) Regulate all broadband industries “similarly.” (2) Provide tax and investment incentives. (3) Direct local govts. to “get out of the way” and not view broadband access as a “revenue-generating exercise.” There are multiple solutions, acknowledged William Mularie, former dir. of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), but he said something had to be done by the govt., which created Internet at agency he used to run: “In communications, ‘Let the market decide’ isn’t a policy, it’s the absence of policy. It doesn’t give the consumers a choice.”
Atkinson told us PPI was planning report outlining steps administration could take to promote broadband, report he hoped would be out 2nd week of June. He said there were many steps govt. could take to promote broadband in areas where it already had involvement, such as: (1) Digitizing local libraries so people could check out e-books. (2) Getting holdings of Library of Congress online. (3) Streaming PBS programming. Atkinson acknowledged that local PBS member stations would object to competition online that could hurt their fund-raising, but he said that could be countered by more funding for CPB. He said some of Bush’s broadband advisers meant well, but he feared end result of President’s broadband agenda would be “mostly platitudes.” PPI is affiliated politically with moderate Democrats.
It wasn’t clear to many panelists that even if copyright concerns in Hollywood could be resolved that addition of more movies online would drive broadband penetration, at least not if price remained where it was. (Consumers Union Counsel Chris Murray, speaking for himself, said providers should drop their price to $30 monthly.) Morrison & Foerster partner Jonathan Band said Hollywood had promised digital content distribution if only Congress would pass Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It did so in 1998, but the content “is still not there,” Band said. MPAA Counsel Troy Dow said content was there, on multiple legal sites: “We're not Luddites.” (RIAA Counsel Mitch Glazier canceled his appearance at last min., citing request for briefing by Sen. Biden [D-Del.] on eve of Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today [Wed.] on webcasting rates.)