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Guest Commentary April 8, 2002
U.S. In Dire Need for National Broadband Policy
The Honorable Sam Brownback
Our society is transitioning from an analog to a digital world, characterized by bandwidth-intensive Internet applications and the broadband connections required to access them. This transition holds great promise for continued industry innovation and productiveness, as well as opening up a whole new world for consumer and community access to information, entertainment, education, and health care. The digital revolution and the emergence of broadband connectivity could be the single most important factor in the continued economic growth and development of our nation in the 21st century.
Broadband connections are having a powerful impact on the underlying service industries providing them to consumers. Cable TV, wireless, satellite, and telephone companies are converging, with each deploying new technologies that will permit them to offer the same voice, video, and data services over their respective platforms.
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Broadband connections will enable cable TV subscribers to make phone calls over the cable network, and telephone subscribers to watch multichannel video over the telephone network. Broadband could usher in a new era of inter-modal competition in telecommunications.
Unfortunately, inter-modal competition is stalling before it's barely gotten off the ground. At last count a mere 10 percent of the nation subscribes to broadband services, and only half the nation has access to broadband services from both wireline service providers: cable and telephone companies. In addition, the services available to consumers through either of these wireline providers are not even fast enough to permit consumers to access, in a practical way, digital video content readily available on websites like Intertainer.com.
Our nation is in dire need of a national broadband policy that provides for not only universal broadband access, but robust competition that will create superior broadband connections than are currently available. There is no one silver bullet solution in creating a national broadband policy, and while tax credits and loan guarantees can help, regulatory reform must serve as its cornerstone.
The debate over broadband supply issues has become nothing less than poisonous. I challenge my colleagues to rise above the rhetoric and give these issues the comprehensive review and action required. To that end, I will do what is necessary to create a forum for such a balanced review to take place.
Sam Brownback, a Republican, is a U.S. Senator from Kansas. He is the author of the Broadband Deployment and Competition Enhancement Act of 2001 (S. 1126). The above commentary has been adapted from a statement by Sen. Brownback at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, March 20, 2002. To contact him, Click Here.
The above column has been distributed by PoliticsOL.com.
