Broadband & Community Broadband

The traditional approach to bridging the broadband "last mile" requires huge investments by incumbent carriers. Laying fiber lines to millions of homes - and upgrading proprietary cellular networks to provide wireless Internet access, so-called 3G - are enormously capital intensive and time consuming at a time when the telecom industry is flat on its back. A viable alternative is WiFi, a wireless LAN technology that shares broadband Internet access among devices using unlicensed spectrum.

In March the FCC classified cable modem Internet service as an "interstate information service," thereby exempting cable broadband from the common carrier obligations of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, as well as from local regulation. The FCC's decision -- together with a pending rule that would likewise exempt high-speed telephone modems (DSL) -- has the potential to undermine the Internet as an open and unfettered medium of communication and innovation.

Fresh from a morning surf off the coast of Malibu, the maharishi of the wireless Internet shows up at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons sporting a rumpled T-shirt and Mayan sandals. It's an outfit more popular among aging head shop owners than youthful tech moguls, but Sky Dylan Dayton likes to live up to his Age of Aquarius name.

The Bush administration has largely ignored the nation's $700-billion telecommunications industry's free fall, a costly mistake for the U.S. economy. Stock prices are down 75%, and telecom companies are expected to reduce their capital spending for the second year in a row.

President Bush should use today's White House high-tech industry forum to announce a national broadband strategy.

On September 11th, the nation discovered that our current cellular communications infrastructure is incapable of managing high volumes of both public safety and consumer phone traffic. In response, the National Communications System, a federal agency, has suggested a "priority access" system to wireless cellular networks in the event of an emergency -- a system that could block civilian calls during a crisis.

The so-called Tauzin-Dingell Act, slated for a House vote this Wednesday, has seemingly spawned more drive-time radio ads than "Hooked on Phonics." The bill would allow the "Baby Bell" phone companies to offer long-distance data services without first abandoning their local monopolies, thus nixing a key regulatory provision of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Even as the Enron and Global Crossing bankruptcies further expose the spectacular waste fostered by the 1990s' Information Age bubble, an army of lobbyists in Washington is fighting to secure government support for broadband communications, the "next wave" of the "new economy." Subsidizing an ultra-fast Internet, it's said, will energize everything, from the stock market to our democracy itself. But if the unbalanced, profligate economy of the '90s has taught us anything, it should be the danger of granting any one sector, no matter how appealing, special political favor.

TechNet and CSPP, two coalitions of high-tech CEOs, recently asked the government to set an ambitious goal - a National Broadband Policy - to connect 100 million homes and businesses to a next generation Internet 50 to 100 times faster than today?s broadband connections. President Bush is expected to preview his broadband initiative in Tuesday?s State of the Union.

For the complete document, please see the attached PDF version below.