Another think tank report calls for U.S. broadband policy leadership

America has an incomplete telecommunications infrastructure that frequently fails to provide broadband over much of its "last mile" and places the U.S. behind many other industrialized nations measured on broadband access and cost. The problem persists because of private market failure, lack of government leadership and proactive policies and ideological gridlock, concludes a report released this week.

Like other think tanks that warn the U.S. is at a crisis point for broadband, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation calls for a strong, effective national broadband policy, arguing that broadband is too critical to the economic well being of the nation to be left solely to market forces. Both public policymakers and private sector providers play a key leadership role, the report asserts, as occurs in other nations with greater broadband access at lower cost:

We should be able to agree that the United States can do better on broadband. The most important step the United States can take as a nation to improve our broadband performance may be to move beyond the divisive and unproductive debate over broadband policy that revolves around arguments about whether we are behind or ahead; whether our relative position is due to policy or other factors; whether unbundling is a magic bullet or an investment killer; and of course, whether net neutrality is the greatest threat to the Internet since its inception or something that is an anachronistic concept.

It’s time to reject the view that somehow this is a zero-sum game between corporate America and government. Both must clearly play a leadership role if we are to make headway on broadband performance. This means shifting the debate to focus on the key issues: how to enact public policies that emphasize the primary goal— getting as many American households as possible using high-speed broadband networks to engage in all sorts of online activities, including education, health care, work, commerce, and interacting with their government.

To give broadband providers the economic incentives to invest in broadband infrastructure, the report offers these specific recommendations:

1. More favorable tax policies to encourage investment in broadband networks, such as accelerated depreciation and exempting broadband services from federal, state, and local taxation.

2. Continue to make more spectrum, including “white spaces,” available for next-generation wireless data networks.

3. Expand the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service Broadband Program and target the program to places that currently do not have non-satellite broadband available.

4. Reform the federal Universal Service Fund program to extend support for rural broadband to all carriers, and consider providing the funding through a reverse auction mechanism.

5. Fund a national program to co-fund state-level broadband support programs, such as Connect Kentucky or North Carolina e-NC Authority.

6. Promote the widespread use of a national, user-generated, Internet-based broadband mapping system that would track location, speed, and price of broadband.

7. State and local governments should take action to make it easier for providers to deploy broadband services, including making it easier to access rights-of-way.

8. Support initiatives around the nation to encourage broadband usage and digital literacy.

9. Fund a revitalized Technology Opportunities Program, with a particular focus on the development of nationally scalable Web-based projects that address particular social needs, including law enforcement, health care, education, and access for persons with disabilities.

10. Exempt broadband Internet access from federal, state, and local taxes.

11. Support new applications, including putting more public content online, improving e-government, and supporting telework, telemedicine, and online learning programs.

Dying on the copper vine: Emerging wireless players face potential backhaul starvation on obsolete T-1s

Wireless broadband, which many see as the solution to fill in the gaps in America's incomplete "hodge podge" wireline telecommunications infrastructure, is itself vulnerable to these same wireline shortcomings, an analysis in Unstrung points out.

The reason, the analysis notes, is wireless broadband remains too dependent on 1970s era T-1 copper data lines for backhaul. T-1's provide far too little bandwidth to support the next generation wireless cell and broadband service known as 4G or Fourth Generation.

The Unstrung analysis also suggests the top tier telcos such as AT&T and Verizon will take advantage of the situation to allow wireless competitors such as Spint, Clearwire and others to literally die on the obsolete copper T-1 vine due to lack of backhaul bandwidth until the big guys get around to updating it with fiber to support their own 4G rollouts.

Fiber infrastructure can pay off in broadband black holes, muni fiber expert says

Tim Nulty, who until recently served as director of Burlington Telecom, a publicly owned broadband system serving the city of Burlington, Vermont and who now runs ValleyFiber, a nonprofit organization focused on bringing municipal fiber to Vermont towns, has to be one of the most honest and smartest guys out there. He tells it like it is and isn't afraid to question telecommunications industry mythology.

Earlier this year, Nulty dismissed the industry's oft-stated notion that there can be robust competition in America's privately owned and operated telecommunications infrastructure. Rather, Nulty correctly observed in my opinion, it's a natural monopoly that by its very nature cannot foster robust market competition to benefit subscribers. The costs to build telecom infrastructure are so high that only large telcos and cable companies have the capital to play. And once one has put infrastructure in place, it discourages other players from coming in and doing a "over build" with its own proprietary infrastructure since it becomes less certain the new entrant will be able to lure a sufficient number of customers away from the incumbent provider to earn a profit on the investment.

It is precisely in this vein that Nulty argues fiber to the premises can pencil out in broadband black holes. First, Nulty, told the Broadband Properties Summit this week, there is by definition a lack of competition in such locales, making a strong business case for a potential fiber-based provider since it would have the market to itself. Second, having the fiber market to itself in what was once a digital dead spot would translate into a higher take rate that would generate more revenues to cover the cost of installing fiber to the premises, also reducing uncertainty and building a stronger business case.

The folks out West in Utah who run that state's multi-muni fiber system UTOPIA and are currently reassessing their numbers after disappointing results would be well served to consult with Nulty.

For some mired in AT&T broadband black holes, U-Verse could bring long awaited high speed Internet

For some residential and small business customers currently outside the reach of AT&T's underpowered DSL service, there could be an unexpected benefit with the rollout of AT&T's triple play U-Verse advanced service offering. If they are served by central office switches where U-Verse is being deployed, the odds are likely higher they will finally get wireline-based broadband.

Last October, Ralph de la Vega, AT&T's group president, regional telecommunications and entertainment, told Investor's Business Daily the telco plans to phase out its its existing voice network and replace it with a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) system where U-Verse is being deployed. In other words, swapping out existing legacy voice-based telephone central office (CO) switching equipment with what are essentially souped up Internet servers capable of delivering multiple Internet Protocol-based advanced services including Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), video, and of course high speed Internet access. That's U-Verse.

Since AT&T like other telcos is rapidly losing residential wireline subscribers who are migrating to wireless voice, it could opt to speed up U-Verse deployments since it would allow the company to sell more than just Plain Old Telephone Service (POTs). That would provide revenues to replace lost residential customers as well as gain additional revenues justifying a ramped up rollout. U-Verse not only gives AT&T the opportunity to replace lost residential voice lines, but also to finance upgrades to its copper cable plant so it can reliably provide U-Verse services, which are delivered by VDSL-based remote VRAD terminals fed with fiber optic connections.

An added incentive for AT&T in some of these areas would be the absence of existing competition from cable companies, which would invariably increase the take rate for U-Verse since these broadband-deprived prospective customers are likely to jump at the chance to get off dialup and satellite.

Cable providers face increased local government demands to renegotiate franchises for universal access

As cable providers go head to head with telcos to be full service advanced telecommunications players offering video, Internet and VOIP they will increasingly come under pressure from local governments to renegotiate franchise agreements to provide universal coverage. Their constituents no longer see cable as a luxury entertainment service but rather as vital telecommunications infrastructure.

A case in point is detailed in this dispatch from the Shelburne Falls (Massachusetts) Independent.

White paper: Telework constrained by inadequate broadband access, slow speeds

To coincide with Earth Day 2008 as gasoline prices reach new highs on record oil prices, the American Electronics Association (AeA) issued a white paper April 22 encouraging greater adoption of telework, also known as telecommuting.

Notably, the white paper cites the lack of broadband Internet access as a key obstacle to allow information workers to work from their homes at least some of the time rather than commuting to an office.

For widespread adoption of telework,the United States needs ubiquitous broadband Internet access. Much of the potential for enlarging the workforce through telework is by attracting people from rural or isolated areas -- or those who would like to relocate to such places. Yet these are the areas least likely to have broadband access. Additionally, the speed of broadband in many parts of the country is woefully insufficient to support the collaborative applications needed for efficient telework.

Broadband cooperative forming in northern Michigan

A broadband cooperative is forming in northern Michigan to provide residents and businesses in 12 counties with more and better options than dialup and satellite access.

According to the Peteskoy (Mich.) News-Review, organizers including the Northern Lakes Economic Alliance and Northeast Michigan Council of Governments are looking into rural development loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund broadband infrastructure.

History is repeating itself. A century ago, telephone co-ops were created to provide service to areas without it. Provided they can raise sufficient funding, these modern day telecommunications co-ops like the Northern Michigan Broadband Cooperative may prove successful because they cover large geographical areas and thus can leverage economies of scale to their advantage.

More typical and problematic are the numerous scattered broadband black holes that characterize America's incomplete telecommunications infrastructure. They encompass much smaller geographical areas and make it difficult for residents and businesses to take collective action like in northern Michigan. The Communications Workers of America has aptly termed this swiss cheese, crazy quilt telecom infrastructure a "hodge podge" that can result in some folks having state of the art advanced telecommunications services while others just down the road or on the next street are stuck in 1992 and limited to dialup access.

Qwest questions future growth path of wireless broadband

Wireless broadband is seen as a much needed "third pipe" to deliver broadband in areas where wireline-based broadband is scarce or nonexistent. For example, in the vast western U.S. service area of Denver-based telco Qwest.

However, Qwest Chief Technology Officer Pieter Poll doesn't believe wireless can deliver sufficient capacity in the future as bandwidth demand grows. Instead, he suggests its role is that of an interim technology. Here's what he had to say on the topic in an interview with Telephony Online:

If you look at the calculation of what wireless networks can provide in terms of bandwidth, it’s a bit-per-second-per-hertz argument, first of all--the efficiency of how you use spectrum. But ultimately [it’s] finite spectrum. With a number of users. As you build networks, there’s a natural density of cells or reuse that you can get to. I don’t see wireless networks replacing wired broadband networks the way people are thinking about future wired broadband networks. Don’t get me wrong; I’m very excited about what wireless broadband offers today and will offer in the future. But I think it has its appropriate place for the reuse and speed offered. When we start thinking about things we can do in the home with extreme speeds, those are things you will not be able to realistically do over wireless networks, at least at any cost point that an operator would consider feasible.