The FCC seems to want to link the U.S. for broadband in much the way copper wire and telephones did last century. Fragmented technology makes that difficult.
When Ed Whitacre, CEO of AT&T (T) retired in 2007, a telecom lobbyist commented to me that Whitacre was one of the last die-hard believers in providing telephone service to everyone. This person was concerned that incoming CEO Randall Stephenson would focus less on landlines and more on growing revenue and generating profit, at the expense of rural customers. That’s coming to pass not just at AT&T, but at other telcos as well. And as I watch what’s happening at the FCC with regard to the National Broadband Plan, as well as the kerfuffle over whether or not Google Voice should provide access to rural areas, where it would have to pay high call termination fees, I realize that the FCC is embarking not on a National Broadband Plan, but a National Communications Plan.
And it isn’t just about providing access to the Web. It’s about creating an infrastructure to link the country in much the same way that copper wires and phones linked the U.S. during the last century. We may look down on that network now, but millions of Americans still use it and it’s served as the foundation upon which the Web as we know it today has been built. Still, thanks to the fragmented nature of the technologies and types of businesses that deliver broadband, that idea of a unified communications infrastructure (as well as the need for it) is fading.
Broadband, from the last mile that connects our homes to the long-haul networks that move the traffic around the world, is our voice, our video, our Web and our connection to one another. Our shared last-mile networks are the party-line equivalent of the telephone system for this century, and the FCC needs to help create regulations that take such a reality into account. No, getting broadband to everyone isn’t a profitable proposition for the carriers, but the U.S. has a responsibility to make it happen.
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