Always something happening and nothing going on
There's always something cooking and nothing in the pot
-- John Lennon,
Nobody Told Me
The Obama administration’s PR initiative this week on U.S.
telecommunications infrastructure deficiencies is largely window dressing and
will likely mean the wired network that Americans have today for their home and
small business Internet connection is likely the same one they’ll have for the foreseeable.
This prediction was made in 2012 by former U.S Federal Communications
Commission official Blair Levin and continues to hold true in 2015:
"For the first time since American ingenuity birthed the commercial
Internet, we do not have a single national wireline provider with plans (real
plans, not “fiber to the press release”) to deploy a better network. For most
Americans, five years from now, the best network available to them will be the
same network they have today."
The reason is the same as in 2012: insufficient available capital. Building Internet
infrastructure to serve homes and businesses is a high cost endeavor. Those
high costs have produced market failure on the supply side as the
administration acknowledges, noting in this
fact
sheet that three of four Americans lack networks providing a level of
service increasingly required for many online services. “Rarely is the problem
a lack of demand — too often, it is the capital costs of building out broadband
infrastructure…”
The administration is correct that local governments will have to play a
major role in meeting the Internet infrastructure needs of their residents, infrastructure
many argue is as critical in the 21
st century as roads and highways
were in the 20
th.
But it has no meaningful plan to help these
localities finance infrastructure construction beyond highly limited and
restricted funding available through existing grant and loan programs directed
to rural areas of the nation that are only a drop in the bucket relative to the
many billions of dollars needed.
In fairness to the administration, even it if did have a plan, it would face
difficult odds getting Congress to appropriate the necessary funding. That has
left the administration with little to offer in the way of tangible economic
assistance. The administration is
relaunching
its BroadbandUSA website, where among other things it will offer “funding
leads” for financing infrastructure construction. Given the lack of needed
dollars, the administration has also been reduced to talking points that unfortunately
won’t do anything to build last mile fiber to the premise infrastructure
including:
- Increasing “competition.” (Sounds great, but ignores the fact that
telecommunications infrastructure is a natural monopoly, not a competitive consumer
market like groceries, vehicles and air travel. It also undermines Obama's position that Internet should be regulated under Title II telecommunications common carrier rules that are predicated on a monopoly market.)
- Enforcing “net neutrality” rules on Internet service providers. (A wonky
term that doesn’t mean anything to consumers with subpar or no wired Internet
service options).