The sweeping national broadband plan that federal regulators delivered to Congress last week doesn’t go far enough to satisfy some experts who warn that the United States would still trail other industrialized nations in prices and speed.
Those experts insist that the FCC plan is not nearly ambitious enough to bring faster Internet connections at lower prices to more Americans. That’s because the proposal fails to bring adequate competition, they say, to a duopoly broadband market now controlled by giant phone and cable TV companies.
According to the New America Foundation, a 100-megabit broadband connection costs as little $16 per month in Sweden and $24 per month in Korea, while service that is only half that fast costs $145 per month in the U.S.
“What I want is big bandwidth for cheap prices,” said Sascha Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative. “But the plan punts on competition.”
The national broadband plan, mandated by last year’s stimulus bill, offers a roadmap for bringing affordable high-speed Internet access to Americans who currently don’t have it and dramatically increasing speeds for those who do. With Congress holding two hearings on the plan this week, some interest groups are already voicing concern.
Although wireless companies are pleased with a recommendation to free up more airwaves for mobile broadband access, television broadcasters fear most of that spectrum would come from them — whether they want to give it up or not.
Rural phone companies are concerned about proposals to overhaul two federal programs that are significant sources of revenue for them: the Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes phone service in poor and rural areas, and the intercarrier compensation system, which governs charges that telecom carriers pay to connect calls.
And public safety officials are upset that the plan does not include a proposal to give them exclusive access…