| "The Plan looks pretty damn good, actually." |
| Thursday, 18 March 2010 20:06 |
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"So now we’ve had National Broadband Plan Day!. And, despite undeniable flaws and places where the Plan Drafters wussed out/”avoided controversy,” The Plan looks pretty damn good, actually. Let me stress that: Pretty … Damn … Good! Not “oh well, I guess we need to make the best of it” or “it does some good stuff and has a lot of garbage.” I mean that, in a lot of real ways – including the horrible, brutally geeky, detail-oriented and unsexy ways that focus on things like pole attachments and duct work – this plan lays a good foundation to promote competition, promote deployment, and try some pretty courageous, novel and controversial thing to put this country on the road to Kick Ass Broadband Infrastructure For All, as opposed to merely adequate broadband infrastructure for some. ... What I Like Competition First, the Plan starts by putting competition front and center. That was not previewed by Genachowski in his Preview Tour, leading to a fair amount of speculation that there would be nothing in the plan to offend the incumbent providers – or that it would only focus on releasing more spectrum for auction. [My attitude is talk is cheap and to look for results. 300 MHz of spectrum may in fact be enough to change things, but that's unproven. db] The Plan focuses on improving wholesale competition through special access reform and a general review of wholesale policies. [Waiting for details, but Harold is right this can make a difference if done right. Bringing down monopolistic backhaul costs in extreme rural areas is crucial. db] We get our set-top box proceeding, with actual deadlines to get this stuff done. [this is big. Done right, it means I can chose to watch my video from the web rather than from the cable guy.] On wireless policy, the plan [suggests] Unlicensed spectrum While auctioning spectrum remains a focus (in part, as I predicted, for revenue reasons), the plan makes a major advance in policy by acknowledging the vital role of unlicensed spectrum as an input to competition. In addition to recommending a swift conclusion of the broadcast white spaces proceeding and generally increasing opportunities for such “opportunistic sharing,” the Plan recommends finding a new contiguous band of spectrum for unlicensed as primary use rather than as a secondary use/underlay (the current system). This would potentially allow far greater power levels for unlicensed spectrum than currently allowed in any band, a big win for wireless ISPs and community wireless networks.
But What About All The Stuff We Didn’t Get, How The Incumbents Are Dancing In the Streets, Etc. I will absolutely agree with critics, including Commissioner Copps and Commissioner Clyburn, who rightly point out that the Report ducks a lot of the hard questions on things like last-mile competition (where the report describes a duopoly for last-mile, praises the power of competition, and then suddenly moves on to the next topic). ... We did not reach the current status quo in a day. We will not undo it in a day. Nor is the measure of success whether incumbents find things they like or even if they continue to make a profit. I am not in this business to bankrupt telcos or cablecos. I simply want them to work for a living rather than enjoy monopoly rents, and to treat customers as people worthy of respect rather than as assets to be exploited – and I recognize that only through a proper set of rules do such things happen. As I noted at the beginning of this process, those who expected the National Broadband Plan to radically transform our national broadband landscape in one stroke misconceived both the authority delegated and the purpose of this exercise. This plan provides clay from which we may forge bricks to build a better broadband future. But it does not build that future for us. That job remains to us. Those waiting for the influence of industry lobbyists and money in Washington to vanish will remain disappointed. Those determined to overcome the influence of industry lobbyists and money in Washington should take pride in the steps achieved in the National Broadband Plan, and look ahead to the proceedings that will follow. more at http://bit.ly/cocw2L |
Harold Feld has proven himself one of the most thoughtful public interest types in D.C. His deep knowledge of the legal questions has often affected decisions. I think affordability and availability are the most important issues and they did little for those, but agree with Harold about how important some other moves are. From