Baker Proposes 4G-Friendly Policies, Slams Net Neutrality Proposal

4G is what the country and economy need, Baker said, saying more deployment and rollouts are expected next year. Regulators should do all they can to help 4G buildout, she said, focusing on incentives. If 2010 has been a year of asking questions, 2011 has to be a year of action, she said, saying she wants to see more focus on infrastructure, backhaul and bringing mobile broadband to rural areas. Concrete things regulators can do include coming up with an action plan on repurposing the Mobile Satellite Services bands, encouraging the development of larger spectrum blocks through secondary markets and reviewing technical requirements and rules for spectrum, she said.

A true global spectrum framework should address spectrum challenges across bands and governments, Baker said. The FCC and other players in the communications ecosystem have to provide a pipeline of spectrum in 2011 so there’s sufficient spectrum for the next couple of years, she said. The challenge can’t be addressed on an auction-by-auction and proceeding-by-proceeding basis, she said, urging better coordination with agencies like NTIA. Regulators need to identify the right spectrum to reallocate, she said, noting that NTIA has recommended reallocating 115 MHz of spectrum in two bands over the next five years.

Meanwhile, pushing net neutrality forward is solving a problem that doesn’t exist, Baker said. “The Internet is open today” and there’s no identified market failure, she said. To move forward, the FCC needs the Congress to provide the tools and “the Congress has told us not to act,” she said, urging the FCC to partner with the Congress and find new middle ground. Acting on net neutrality now would also hamper the agency’s ability to achieve other goals, she said. The FCC is moving on net neutrality in a non-data driven and non-transparent manner, she said. Both the original open Internet rules and the “Third Way” proposal were legal and economic disasters, said Phoenix Center President Lawrence Spiwak. “Title II” regulation would deter investment, he said. The devil will be in the details, he said, regarding the FCC’s “Title I” order.

Regarding the impact of stimulus money on job creation and the economy, Phil Weiser, the Obama Administration’s senior advisor for technology and innovation, said most money hasn’t been spent yet and it will take a while to realize the benefits. It’s a challenge to measure and come up with metrics, he acknowledged. The problem is that national income accounting is still stuck in the 1970s and the ways that the government measures the economic contribution of communications service is problematic, said Michael Mandel, chief economist with the Visible Economy. The communications industry is not getting credit for vast improvement in capabilities, relative to dollar spending, he said.

It’s clear that the government has important roles in the broadband ecosystem, said Blair Levin, who led FCC development of the National Broadband Plan. He cited competition policy, control of key inputs, government support needed for areas without which no business would provide services, and key buyers in markets where effectiveness depends on knowledge exchange. But the roles are limited, he said. For most parts of the network business, private risk capital is driving sufficient investment and competitive force is driving investment decisions that the public sector is ill advised to take on, he said. The device and applications markets are highly competitive though there’s a need to drive products and applications for public service uses, he said.

Most of the current policies are being carried out very ineffectively, Levin said. Regarding competition policy, there are no transparency rules, no data to monitor markets and key policies have no impact, he said. Universal service funding doesn’t go to where need is greatest and reward is inefficient and supports old technology, he said. Levin said speed matters but the output and the way people use speed to do things also matter. Spectrum technologies are strategic for national security, he said.