(This post is inspired by a discussion between wireless ISP owners about the US falling behind many other countries in broadband penetration to households)
Use of unlicensed spectrum is one of the few successes in the fight to bring broadband to the masses. Unfortunately, with the exception of Chairman Powell and a few others at the FCC, not enough people in our government and regulatory bodies are ready to make the changes to the political and economic infrastructure of our telecommunications industries that are necessary to make the step from third world broadband backwater to tech mecca.
What is my plan to deliver broadband to America? It goes something like this:
1) Remove unnecessary government subsidies to telecom businesses. Until all government subsidies are removed from the existing telecom businesses that have FAILED TO DELIVER broadband to all, we are going to be stuck with the scaps that those companies throw to us. Kill USF. Now. Take the money saved by those subsidies and establish programs that reward progressive, out of the box projects that can deliver or are ALREADY DELIVERING broadband to the places that don’t have it.
2) Levy substantial and legitimate fines on the companies that have promised broadband and not delivered. Take a cursory look at the issues surrounding the City of Philadelphia Wifi project, and you can see what a mess is going on. Verizon has collected millions of dollars of economic development and government subsidies to provide broadband in Pennsylvania – while leaving enough huge gaps that entire cities believe they can do a better job. Fines have become a “cost of doing business”. Institute fines, or better yet regulatory restrictions, that really mean something and force share prices down. That is the only way to get the attention of these companies.
3) Leave VOIP based phone service unregulated. Heh, it’s going to be impossible to regulate anyway.
4) Any infrastructure that has had a substantial amount of the constuction costs subsidized by the government (like the majority of the rural phone systems or subsidized fiber routes) should be open to competitive telecom carriers under fair access rules. This should include fiber, copper or licensed wireless – even cable modem infrastructure if it was subsidized by the government.
5) Open up larger chunks of spectrum for broadband and institute unlicensed or “loose” rules that lower the barrier to entry into the market of competitive wireless broadband providers.
6) NO BAILOUTS of any telecom providers. Any companies that are failing need to FAIL FAST, so that the employees, engineers and the assets of those companies can be reallocated to new companies that are able to adjust better to the competitive realities. When sloth and bureaucracy is removed, innovation will result.
When we do these things, we will start to rise back up the list.
Until we make changes of this kind, we are little better than the banana republic dictatorships with their state-owned phone systems and outrageous restrictions. The land of the free, indeed.
Amen brotha!