Broadband News

Conferences and reports on the future of broadband probably deserve their own SIC code, but the latest is given some piquance because a co-author is Phil Weiser, the new Deputy Assistant Attorney General for International, Policy and Appellate Matters in DOJ's Antitrust Division.

The report is on a recent Roundtable on the End of Scarcity, Open Architecture, and the Future of Broadband Competition Policy (June 2009), conducted by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) and the Silicon Flatirons program of the University of Colorado, written by Robert Atkinson for ITIF and Weiser for SF.

A few areas of agreement were noted – that targeted subsidies could be use to ensure access for all, and that the “middle mile” is an important constraint – but the most interesting part is the "questions left on the table for further discussion”:

 1) The participants were uncertain or differed about “the nature of broadband competition, the level of competition, and the role of next generation wireless networks”;

2) Consensus was lacking on the “optimal nature of network management” and on whether control should lie with the consumer or the ISP;

3) There was no consensus on the best strategy to ensure that broadband providers “continue to provide robust and growing levels of basic best efforts access.”

That these questions were left on the table is not a surprise, since that is where they have resided for as long as there has been an Internet, or perhaps even a telecom industry. The real issue is how to create mechanisms to resolve them, perhaps not permanently, but with enough certainty that the tech world can progress.