[CAnet - news] The United States is facing a crisis in broadband connectivity

For more information on this item please visit my blog at
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/ or http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com
-------------------------------------------

[Here is an excellent report by Educause on the state of broadband in the
USA and a comparison with other countries. It is interesting that the report
points to Canada (which has fallen further behind then the US in terms of
broadband deployment) as possible model for deploying broadband. Although I
agree that broadband is critical economic and social enabler I remain
skeptical of government funded solutions, except perhaps for providing basic
infrastructure such as conduit and/or dark fiber.  Several municipal and
government funded broadband initiatives are in already in trouble such as
Utopia, Philadelphia WiFi and South Dundas (which is paradoxically is cited
as good example in this paper).

The challenge with broadband in North America is lack of facilities based
competition. What we need to find out is why the big telcos and cablecos are
not deploying infrastructure in their competitor's territory?  They seem to
have no problem deploying nation wide wireless networks, but nobody wants to
make the make investment in nation wide broadband in direct competition with
existing incumbents.  What are the hurdles? Is broadband a natural monopoly?
Do we need to encourage alternate business models, through regulation, tax
incentives or other means? More distressing - why arent consumers
complaining?  Why is it that the nation that exemplifies free enterprise and
entrepreneurialism, the nation that created Google, Yahoo, Apple Microsoft
and host of other world beating companies, cannot find a truly competitive
business model that will enable the build out of a national broadband
network for the world's richest nation?  --BSA]


http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080131-fixing-us-broadband-100-billio
n-for-fiber-to-every-home.html

Executive Summary
The United States is facing a crisis in broadband connectivity. The demand
for bandwidth is accelerating well beyond the capacity of our current
broadband networks, especially as video traffic and homebased
businesses become more prevalent. In the very near future, a single family
will be watching HDTV video at the same that they engage in remote health
monitoring, videoconferencing, gaming, distance education class lectures,
and social networking. Moores Law, as well as several studies of future
Internet growth, predicts that homes and businesses will need a minimum of
100 megabits per second (Mbps) of capacity within the next three to five
years and will need even greater capacity going forward.

While other nations are preparing for the future, the United States is not.
Most developed nations are deploying big broadband networks (100 Mbps)
that provide faster connections at cheaper prices than those available in
the United States. Japan has already announced a national commitment to
build fiber networks to every home and business, and countries that have
smaller economies and more rural territory than the United States (e.g.,
Finland, Sweden, and Canada) have better broadband services available.

Why is the United States so far behind? The failure of the United States to
keep pace is the direct result of our failure to adopt a national broadband
policy. The United States has taken a deregulatory approach under the
assumption that the market will build enough capacity to meet the demand.
While these steps may have had some positive influence, they are not
sufficient. The profit/loss statements of individual firms fail to take into
account the positive externalities from a widely deployed broadband
network, including economic growth, lowercost health care, and higher
quality education. In contrast, most other nations treat broadband services
as necessary infrastructure; their governments adopted explicit broadband
stimulus plans at the turn of the century, and their countries are now
reaping the
benefits.

The United States needs to take aggressive action to significantly expand
our broadband connectivity. Now is not the time for incremental
improvements; we are behind, and we must adopt a comprehensive
strategy this year if we are to address the growing needs of our citizens
and our economy. U.S. policy must be forwardlooking-we must skate where
the puck is going to be. For these reasons, this paper proposes the
creation of a new federal Universal Broadband Fund (UBF)that, together with
matching funds from the states and the private and/or public sector, should
be used
to build open, big broadband networks of at least 100 Mbps (scalable upwards
to 1 Gbps) to every home and business by 2012. U.S. state governors and
foreign heads of state have found the resources to subsidize broadband
deployment; the U.S. federal government should as well.

Building a local fiber connection past each home and business will cost
approximately $100 billion. The paper recommends the publicprivate
partnership approach followed in Canada, where onethird of the funding
would be provided by the federal government, onethird by the states, and
the remaining one
third by the private and/or public sector. It thus proposes a federal fund
of $8 billion per year for four years, to be distributed to the states once
they provide their matching amount of funding. Each state would then combine
the federal and state funding and award grants to individual entities
(public or private) that provide the remaining onethird of the funding to
build open, big broadband capacity on a communitybycommunity basis.

While the initial investment is significant, the returns would be enormous.
First, a big broadband network would be less expensive to operate than the
existing copper network, resulting in actual cost savings of several billion
dollars per year. More important, the availability of broadband capability
would generate enormous economic activity (both from building the network
and from its use) that would lead to greater tax revenue and economic
growth. Furthermore, fiber networks are scalable upwards to an
almost unlimited capacity; the investment in building these networks may
provide adequate broadband connectivity for several decades. Finally, once
the networks are built, the need for additional funding would end, and the
private and/or public entity that receives the funding would own and operate
the network without the need for ongoing federal subsidies.

A critically important component of this grant program is that the networks
built with UBF funding must be open and accessible to all users and content
and application providers. The taxpayer is entitled to certain rights in
return for providing twothirds of the funding to build these networks.
Thus, the entity
chosen to build the network in each community would maintain both an open
network for all lawful uses and affordable pricing, and may be required to
make a portion of its capacity available on a wholesale basis to competing
retail service providers.

While federal funding and openness are fundamental, other components of a
comprehensive broadband plan are equally vital. The plan must include the
coordinated effort of our elected leaders and must be implemented by a core
of federal, state, and local officials, with guidance from an advisory
committee of commercial and nonprofit institutions. The plan should include
tax incentives to spur private sector broadband investment and should
encourage public sector investment by municipalities and states as well.
Efforts should also be undertaken to ensure that the public is made aware of
the availability of these broadband services. Funding should also be
provided to bolster U.S. investment in longterm telecommunications
research.
The U.S. broadband crisis is a unique challenge. Unlike past threats to our
future competitiveness, the solution to our broadband connectivity crisis is
primarily local. The benefits of broadband connectivity are felt directly by
every consumer and business, and final decisions must involve our local
leaders under a comprehensive federal program. The United States needs to
move beyond the rhetoric and begin to adopt a specific action plan for the
future. EDUCAUSE looks forward to comment on this proposal and seeks to join
with others in improving our national broadband connectivity.

-------------------------------------
To subscribe or unsubscribe send e-mail to [email protected]

These news items and comments are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect
those  of the CANARIE board or management.


-----------
[email protected]
[email protected]
web: www.canarie.ca/~bstarn
skype: pocketpro
blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/


_______________________________________________
news mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.canarie.ca/mailman/listinfo/news