Want better Internet? Vote Obama.
October 31, 2008 – 6:15 pm
Fuitless visit to the FCC
For the past eight years, I have seen a movement away from critical open access, and toward a monopolized Internet. It’s time for change.
In 1996, during the end of Clinton’s first term, congress passed the 1996 Telecom Act, opening voice and data communications to competition. This historic event ushered in early innovators such as Covad Communications, one of the first competitive carriers, and one of the first telecom companies to offer DSL service. Cable, telecom, and ISPs all engaged in years of competition and innovation, resulting in the relatively widespread availability of broadband access and services we see today.
But for the last four years, the FCC has subscribed to a different mandate, and there has been a huge roll-back. It’s a philosophy called the “multi-modal competition model”, and the basic premise is that less competition is good. While it makes little sense, that philosophy has informed key decisions by the FCC that affect the quality, price and innovation of Internet access that consumers can purchase today.
The multi-modal concept simply says that “One choice of Cable Internet versus one choice of DSL Internet is enough competition”, and that eliminating the common carriage wholesale requirements will free these two giants to make investments and grow availability. In other words, if you can get Internet in any form from just two providers, the market will probably take care of itself. There was some thought that wireless and powerline based Internet would also be in the mix, but neither of these have been relevant. So, what we’re left with is a duopoly. Ever seen vibrant innovation or really competitive pricing in a duopoly?
Under this multi-model concept, the FCC first decided that Cable companies would be free from the requirement that telecom carriers had to wholesale services to ISPs. Then, when telecom carriers appropriately pointed out the inequity in that, they eliminated the requirement of them too. This leaves ISPs without the ability to sell services to customers, and hands the entire ISP business to the Cable and Telco firms.
The Telecom Act is intact, but barriers to entry are very high. This takes the typical ISP who buys wholesale services out of the picture, leaving behind only regulated competitive carriers. (Sonic.net has formed a telco carrier for this reason in order to remain a going concern.)
I visited the FCC myself to speak to staff about these issues. It was clear that the democratic minority appointees to the FCC understood the need for competition, but that the issue was being decided by the administration. I think it’s time for a change to that administration.
McCain’s close ties to large telecom firms promise four more years of this broken non-competitive concept at the FCC, and I believe that’s inherently bad for consumers.
Obama on the other hand has addressed the issue head on, and has a stated goal of open access. This includes honoring the principals of network neutrality, and hopefully, vibrant competition again instead of simply giving the Internet as a whole to the monopoly Cable and Telco.
For more on the history of our country’s march backward on broadband competition, see:
FCC v. Brand X
FCC forbearance on Fiber wholesale
FCC forbearance on DSL and Broadband wholesale
2 Responses to “Want better Internet? Vote Obama.”
While I know that Senator Ted “Series of Tubes” Stevens is now officially a convicted felon and unlikely to play a major part in such deliberations, I still have serious concerns about the federal government interfering with technical decisions on the Internet. Busting open the last-mile duopoly to some viable competition is probably a much better way to avoid the network neutrality bogeymen that people make such a big fuss about online.
By John Fitzgerald on Oct 31, 2008
But when corporate & individual taxes go through the roof and the interest alone on the national deficit becomes impossible for us to pay will you still think this was such a grand idea to elect the most liberal member the Senate has ever had? There is a bigger picture here, believe it or not! Yes, the FCC has real problems under the Bush admin- just as it did under Clinton. Mr. Obama, with even less experience and track record than even Gov. Palin, while hiring back much of the corrupt Clinton disaster admin and promising all will be wonderful while NEVER giving any real detail about how- we will most assuredly get stuck with the bill Obama and a liberal Congress will ring up. Doesn’t anyone understand that we cannot sustain living on credit forever? At this rate we’ll melt down into something like Argentina was in a less than a decade, perhaps much less. Smoke & mirrors economics will certainly come back to haunt us all, conservative & liberal alike, regardless of our level of denial or acceptance of the facts. Bush made mistakes, but We the People just made a worse one! Wake up! Is it worth winning one mostly imaginary battle just to lose our shirts? That endorsement was about the most short sighted thing I’ve ever heard!
By Stu on Dec 9, 2008