Crib Sheet: Broadband Access
Why young people should fight for broadband penetration.
By Anne Shoup, Center for American Progress
Wednesday February 28, 2007
The controversy over net neutrality dominated the debate over the renewal of the 1996 Telecommunications Act last year. Net neutrality is the principle that the internet should be impartial to the information flowing through it rather than allowing telecommunications companies to institute tiered services, a model where higher quality of service is given to certain customers, presumably those who pay more. But all the controversy over net neutrality obscured another important issue for progressives who value democratic access to the internet: broadband penetration.
After months of fighting over net neutrality that pitted the telecoms against a grassroots coalition that included unlikely allies such as the Feminist Majority and the Gun Owners of America, the 109th Congress closed its session with little progress on new legislation. But, although it’s essential to a healthy future for the internet, net neutrality doesn’t help those without any access, and it doesn’t alleviate the frustration of dialing in at 14.4kbps.
Broadband, simply described as high-speed internet, is changing almost every aspect of our lives, including entertainment, work, telephone services, education, and healthcare. There have also been fundamental changes to our democratic process as a result of broadband. Congressional debates on CSPAN, local city council meetings, Al Jazeera, and political videos posted on YouTube are all available to anyone with a high speed internet connection. According to a report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 31 percent of Americans (over 60 million people) used the internet to get political news and discuss races during the 2006 elections. This shift makes efforts to close the digital divide all the more important. As former FCC Chairman William Kennard wrote in a New York Times op-ed last fall, “the digital divide, once defined as the chasm separating those who had access to narrowband dial-up internet and those who didn’t, has become a broadband digital divide.”
Broadband penetration is an important issue for young people. We grew up with the internet and understand it better than many members of Congress. We now find ourselves uniquely positioned to lead the charge for widespread high-speed access. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 83 percent of 18–19 year olds use the internet. And broadband technologies are essential for the United States to stay competitive in the global economy.
Broadband deployment is not completely new to national politics. The 1996 Telecommunications Act required the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to determine whether advanced telecommunications deployment was occurring in a reasonable and timely manner for all Americans. But 10 years later, “the FCC has failed to provide the American public accurate and useful information about the deployment of advanced telecommunications services in the U.S.,” according to a 2005 column by Mark Lloyd, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
What’s more, broadband in 1996 was far different from how it is today, and the FCC is working on a decade-old definition of the term. As Lloyd explains, most “experts argue that the definition of broadband should be a moving target” and that no group would consider the “low U.S. definition that crawls at 200 kilobits per second” as broadband. In addition, the FCC’s measurement of broadband access is having at least one subscriber per zip code. While the FCC boasts that 95 percent of the nation’s zip codes have one subscriber, this information offers little help in understanding the true nature of broadband deployment.
In testimony prepared for a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on February 1, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps stated that the United States ranks 21st in the world for broadband opportunities according to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). In a different measure by the ITU, broadband penetration, the United States faired slightly better at 16th, but still lagged behind China (2), Canada (5), and even Singapore (15). Free Press reports that Americans pay more money for fewer services than a dozen other nations. A third of U.S. households are still using dial-up and another third are without internet access of any kind.
Broadband access is already being taken seriously on the world stage. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development concluded in a report in November that broadband internet access is so vital for business that it should be labeled as a utility, like water and electricity. But in the United States broadband penetration is lagging behind other countries in the industrialized world.
Under the Clinton administration, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) under the Department of Commerce dispensed grants encouraging public and private partnerships to improve technological opportunities. The Bush administration cut funding for these programs, leaving broadband penetration to market forces. Unfortunately, limited competition between internet providers means little incentive for them to offer their customers lower prices or faster connections. As Verizon’s director of internet and technology policy, Michael McKeehan, said, “The speed we offer is based on competition from the cable sector. If they offer 6Mbps, we go a bit better. We don’t see the need to ramp up the speeds just yet.”
Several politicians, including Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), John Dingell (D-MI), and Ed Markey (D-MA) pledged at the 2007 Media Reform Conference in Memphis to hold the FCC commissioners under intense scrutiny. Markey, who now chairs the House subcommittee that will oversee communication legislation, promised a historic debate over the next two years. According to a Free Press report, Americans’ lack of broadband access is the result of a combination of market and policy failures. They argue that the Telecommunications Act renewal proposed last summer did not include “a comprehensive vision for how to bring multiple competitive broadband providers to each market offering truly high-capacity connections at affordable prices.”
Hopefully, the new leadership in Congress will do a better job of addressing these issues. Increasing access to broadband and closing the digital divide is a practical and moral obligation for all of us. But it is up to young people, with their natural understanding of technology and their stake in the future, to lead the charge and keep Congress and the FCC in check.
Anne Shoup is a fellows assistant at the Center for American Progress.
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