Study Backs Open Access to Broadband Networks

Almost all of the most successful countries in broadband deployment have opened up the networks of their main carriers to competing service providers, according to a draft report put out for comment on Wednesday by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.


The question of what makes for a successful national broadband policy has generated heated debate in the U.S. over the past several years, focusing on issues including net neutrality, the Universal Service Fund for rural phone service, and the proper role of government. The U.S. frequently is ranked below many other highly developed countries in studies of overall access to broadband.

Most of the highest-ranking countries use so-called "open access" policies, under which the incumbent carriers have to allow competitors to lease capacity on their networks and offer their own services, the Berkman report said. By contrast, the U.S. stands out for having instituted such rules in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 but backed away from them early in this decade, the report said.

This was the report's most surprising and significant finding, wrote Yochai Benkler, the principal investigator. The study looked at the "first-generation" transition from dial-up to broadband and the "second-generation" move to connectivity that is faster but also "just there," available to citizens without their having to think about it. Open-access policies played a major role in the success of many first-generation wired network transitions and is also aiding in second-generation wired rollouts, the report said. Japan, South Korea, Sweden, the Netherlands and the U.K. are among the countries that have used open-access rules to foster strong broadband markets, it said.

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_access_to

Among the findings of the new report:

No matter how one measures broadband penetration -- whether it's per capita or per household -- the United States still ranks 15th in among the 30 OECD nations.

There is absolutely no correlation between a country's population density and its broadband penetration. The geographical size of the United States doesn't explain the poor state of broadband adoption and availability.
Critics claim the OECD measures are flawed because they don't count mobile wireless. But a cell phone is no substitute for a true broadband connection -- and if these phones were counted, the United States would fare even worse in the world rankings.

While U.S. consumers have at best two choices for a wired broadband connection, in Europe consumers have many choices -- sometimes dozens -- among providers on just a single platform.

Many of the countries ahead of the United States in the world rankings still have higher levels of absolute broadband growth. And the U.S. broadband penetration growth rate during the second half of last year was the second lowest in the entire OECD.

"International rankings do matter," Turner said. "This is not just a point of pride. Each spot the United States slips represents billions in lost producer and consumer surplus, and potentially millions of real jobs lost to overseas workers."

The latest data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ranks the U.S. 15th in the world in broad penetration per capita, down from fourth in 2001 and 12th just six months ago.
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