Harvard Broadband Paper Divides Incumbents, Competitors

AT&T said the study contained “pervasive bias.” The study’s “primary writer” Yochai Benkler has historically endorsed open-access policies, but doesn’t acknowledge it in the paper, AT&T said. Also, the paper cites Free Press Research Director Derek Turner as one of its data sources, and “draws on prior published analysis by that same organization,” the company said. And the Center never admits “that the Berkman Center is funded by several proponents of “open access” regulation, including Google, PayPal (a division of eBay), and Mozilla, or explain the steps it took to guard against the “obvious conflict of interest that results from that uncomfortable fact.”

The Berkman Center “relies on data that have been soundly criticized by experts, while flatly ignoring or dismissing an array of studies that are directly contrary to its core conclusions,” said AT&T. The study “begins with what it concedes is a data set that is too narrow to permit robust and reliable results, and then makes it even narrower by excluding data points that most directly contradict its thesis.” Verizon similarly condemned the report’s objectivity, calling it “merely an advocacy piece for the previously expressed policy opinions of its principal author.”

TIA urged a peer review of the study before the FCC takes any action on its recommendations. The paper fails the Data Quality Act’s “standards of quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity,” it said. NCTA said the study “is not an ‘independent expert review of existing literature and studies about broadband deployment and usage throughout the world,'” as requested by the FCC. “Rather, it represents new studies and new data sources that serve the specific policy and ideological goals of Professor Benkler. The Report should be accorded no special treatment simply because it was prepared at the Commission’s request. Professor Benkler is an advocate with strongly-held beliefs and the Report is redolent with those biases.”

“It seems as though our report created a mini stimulus act for telecommunications lawyers and consultants,” the Berkman Center said about the comments, in a note Tuesday on its Web site. It acknowledged that its findings about open- access policies may not be “congenial to the major incumbent broadband providers.” The Center said “it will take time to read through [the comments] and respond to them appropriately and carefully as we finalize our study.” While some comments “advance the debate,” others are of “the usual ad hominem, ‘discredit the witness’ type that, it seems, you must come to expect when you agree to contribute your time and effort to matters of public concern,” the Center said. “Comments that try to muddy the water are regrettable but apparently a fact of Washington politics.”

CompTel said the Berkman paper provides “a complete and objective survey of the current status of broadband deployment and usage throughout the world.” The study “is well documented, well supported and an extremely useful compilation of data describing where other countries are in terms of broadband deployment and availability and what they have done to promote the availability and use of broadband,” the competitive local exchange carrier association said. It agreed with the findings, saying deregulation of unbundling rules in the U.S. coincided with the nation’s plummet from fourth to fifteenth place in international standings compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

“The FCC should give significant weight to the Berkman Study as it provides powerful lessons based [on] the experience of other democratic, market-based industrialized countries that have sought to spur the transition from narrowband to broadband internet access,” agreed Paetec. Deregulatory policy in the U.S. has failed, the CLEC said. “While the largest phone companies have begun to offer next- generation broadband services, the deployment of such services has not happened on a rapid scale. … It would make little sense for the Commission to ignore the data available from other countries that chose a different, and markedly more successful, path.”

The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) said open access provisions should be mandated by the National Broadband Plan. “NATOA agrees with the Berkman Center’s conclusion that open access is beneficial to broadband deployment,” the group said. “NATOA has consistently called for open access networks to be part of the National Broadband Plan.”

The lessons to be learned from the Berkman study are clear, said Public Knowledge, the CCTV Center for Media and Democracy, Media Alliance, Media Access Project and U.S. PIRG in joint comments. “As the Berkman Study makes clear, unbundling increases broadband penetration, bringing more broadband to more people and businesses,” the groups said. “As a result, countries with policies that encourage structural separation experience a growth in Gross Domestic Product. This growth comes from the increased productivity and opportunity that broadband provides. The Commission should recognize the benefits that structural separation has brought to the countries examined in the Study, and move to create similar beneficial policies here in the United States.”

However, USTelecom said the Berkman Center’s conclusions about unbundling contain “numerous errors, omissions, and internal inconsistencies.” The study ignores “more important” factors than unbundling that likely spurred broadband in other countries, including “facilities-based competition, direct government support, large private investment, and non-policy factors such as geography and demographics,” the ILEC association said. Also, Berkman failed to consider actual broadband usage or capital investment, and didn’t explain why some countries with unbundling policies lag behind on fiber deployment, it said. TIA said “the study appears to omit and/or understate key industry and regulatory events and their collective impact on U.S. broadband infrastructure and service providers.”

The New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative (OTI) said open access policies mandated by Japan were “a key factor in Japan’s transition to a becoming a global leader in broadband Internet speeds and affordability.” In 2001, “Japan was substantially behind other nations in terms of Internet and telecommunication services,” but then the Japanese government mandated a series of open access requirements.

“Japan has focused much of its open access policies on addressing the key bottlenecks that are often inherent to telecommunications and continually reassessing where bottlenecks could limit competition and innovation,” OTI said. “Thus, in addition to the openness requirements for fixed-line services, the Japanese regulator also requires mobile network operators to open up wireless networks for wholesale access to new entrants and Mobile Virtual Network Operators in 2007. … The mandate of interconnection rules, unbundling regulations and related policies has transformed Japan into an international broadband leader.”

However, Japanese carrier NTT said the Berkman paper “is seriously in error regarding numerous aspects of the history and current status of the Japanese broadband marketplace.” Facilities-based competition, not unbundling, spurred Japan’s broadband growth, NTT said. NTT faces competition from K-Opti.com, STNet and several cable companies, it said. “Those broadband providers use almost exclusively fiber that they build, own and operate.”

The Greenlining Institute, which advocates on behalf of minority and low-income people in California, said the FCC should fund similar studies along the lines of the Berkman study, to examine how to end the digital divide. “A successful NBP must address social and economic barriers to broadband access and seek ways to mitigate these barriers,” the institute said. “The attitude that a NBP cannot address poverty or inequality is incorrect and problematic. … Increased broadband penetration works directly to reduce poverty because it is undisputed that jobs lead to economic growth. Increased access and investment in broadband creates more jobs involved in the building and expansion of broadband networks. Moreover, digitally literate workers are more attractive to prospective employers, and businesses that are comfortable with digital technology are more economically competitive.”