Crawford Backs Federal Broadband Access Threshold of 100 Mbps

Crawford helped manage President Barack Obama’s transition on telecom policy when he first won the presidency. She’s a law professor at the Cardozo School of Law and in December published Captive Audience, a much discussed and controversial book that attacks what it calls telecom “monopoly and power in the New Gilded Age.” Her name has received a grassroots mentions in recent months in discussions of the possible next FCC chair. “Many of us wish it were you,” Jim Baller, a Washington attorney who represents municipalities and advocates for community broadband networks, told her during a discussion Friday.

Baller had asked Crawford whether Genachowski’s years disappointed her. Crawford was diplomatic, saying the chairman and the FCC had taken on “titanic” challenges like USF reform that had thwarted federal regulators for years. Genachowski “speaks often” about the need for high-capacity, fast networks and played a critical role in developing the National Broadband Plan in 2010, she added: “He should be thanked for that.” Crawford acknowledged what has often been “regulatory gymnastics” at the FCC and indicated that court battles will test the FCC in the next term. “Interconnection is becoming a problem,” she said, calling the problems rural phone companies have connecting a “disaster for the country.”

"We can make sure that every American -- every American -- has access to a set level of service,” Crawford said, suggesting a threshold of 100 Mbps symmetrical, when considering the challenges of the next FCC chair. All policies should follow from that, she said. “America can do better. … This needs to be done with the power the Communications Act gives the commission.” The commission has a lot of tools it can take from its drawer, she said. She recommended subsidies and guarantees from the government, but denied the federal government should be running any super-fast networks itself, referring to the U.S.’s long tradition of private carriers. On the state and local level, she encouraged SEATOA members to help ensure “in every community there’s a meet-up or locus” for those who care about communications policy, a place where people can share information, tips and lessons learned. “We're going to have, at least for a period of time, a very friendly FCC,” Baller said, when considering that Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell also announced his pending departure this week. Baller said he hopes the FCC will be “aggressive” in pursuing items important to the gathered municipal telecom officials. He lamented the “tremendous potential” of Genachowski’s years lost amid political difficulties.

Baller and Crawford praised the defeat this month of Georgia House Bill 282 as a key victory in 2013 and considered the question of whether to restrict municipally owned networks, as that piece of legislation proposed (CD March 11 p7). Crawford described the Georgia victory as “a wonderful, energetic moment [that shows] what’s possible at the local level. We need to roll back those barriers and increase the number of points of light around the country.” Baller called the Georgia outcome “marvelous” and credited the bill’s opponents with delivering “a message and boots on the ground,” focused on jobs and broadband’s economic potential. Baller helped oppose the bill and coordinated with the Georgia Municipal Association. “Usually we win or lose in committee -- if it gets out of committee, we're in trouble,” especially in states with Republican majorities, Baller said. But the Georgia House vote on 282 was “won by a very strong vote, and it was bipartisan,” he said. The next FCC needs to “preempt these state laws” that may prevent Americans from receiving super-fast broadband access, Crawford said.

In her Friday morning keynote speech, Crawford reiterated the central message of her book -- that U.S. cable companies and telcos fail to deliver the broadband service the country needs. “In South Korea, they laugh at us,” she said. U.S. consumers pay too much for too slow a service, she said, noting that cable companies have won in terms of wired connections and a duopoly of Verizon and AT&T on the wireless side. She called wireless service complementary to a wired fiber connection but not a replacement. She compared the broadband industry to the electric industry as it existed earlier in the 20th century and praised the virtues of fiber, which she called “future proof” for the next 50 to 100 years. Young people are seeking out McDonalds locations for the Wi-Fi currently, she said. “We need to get this issue on Americans’ radar screens -- it’s not now.”

She compared communications policy today as akin to the proverbial oblivious frog: “We need to wake up and say it’s a problem. Let’s leap out of the warm water.”