Stuart Corner
Monday, 28 July 2008 08:47
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
The Council urged the FCC to adopt the goals outlined in the "100 Megabit" Congressional Resolutions introduced by Senator John D Rockefeller IV and US Representative Anna Eshoo that call for universal and affordable access by 2010 to networks transmitting bidirectionally, a 10Mbps and to 100Mbps megabits bidirectionally by 2015."
Full marks for specificity on bandwidth. However, it is all very well to talk about 'affordability', but it is not something that simply be conjured up. Volume plays a huge role as does the technology itself, and if those two fail to deliver the only solution is subsidies. At best Government might provide these for those disadvantaged by personal circumstances or by location, but universal subsidies to create affordability would be unlikely in the extreme. However governments can, and in various countries are doing much to try an ensure widely available high speed broadband services.
The FTTH Council has dismissed the US Government's proposed broadband goals are "too vague and tame" to meet the rapidly increasing consumer appetite for high-bandwidth video and data services. They are worse than that: they are a joke. Vague is being too kind. The FCC's Strategic Plan has set out six 'strategic goals', one of which is broadband of which it says: "All Americans should have affordable access to robust and reliable broadband products and services," and that: "Regulatory policies must promote technological neutrality, competition, investment, and innovation to ensure that broadband service providers have sufficient incentive to develop and offer such products and services."
It then lists a series of 'objectives' which fail the first test: they are no desired outcomes. They are simply statements of intent to take action to achieve outcomes, none which are precisely defined: the entire document is bereft of any number attached to any 'goal' at least in its broadband section.
Objective 1: The Commission shall promote the availability of broadband to all Americans.
Objective 2: The Commission shall define broadband in a technologically neutral fashion that includes any platform capable of transmitting high-bandwidth intensive services, applications, and content. Objective 3: The Commission shall ensure harmonized regulatory treatment of competing broadband services.
Objective 4: The Commission shall encourage and facilitate an environment that stimulates investment and innovation in broadband technologies and services.
Objective 5: The Commission shall continue to monitor the deployment of advanced telecommunications capability in order to provide ongoing national and international policy leadership and consumer education in the emerging broadband arena.
CONTINUED
