Europeans Are Eating Our Lunch; Our Broadband Plan Is Toast

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: May 8, 2009 9:10:04 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Europeans Are Eating Our Lunch; Our Broadband  
Plan Is Toast

[Note:  Worth reading!  DLH]

Posted May 8, 2009 | 03:53 PM (EST)
Europeans Are Eating Our Lunch; Our Broadband Plan Is Toast
by Art Brodsky, Communications Director, Public Knowledge
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-brodsky/europeans-are-eating-our_b_200258.html 
>
For a couple of hours yesterday (May 7), there appeared a glimmer of  
hope that maybe, just maybe, someone in the U.S. Senate was serious  
about a broadband policy. Everyone seems to agree that we need one.  
President Obama campaigned on one. The idea that the Internet is a  
necessity more than a luxury is rapidly taking hold. Yesterday at a  
discussion here in Washington, I heard a story about a man in rural  
Vermont who fixes engines. He needs a broadband Internet connection to  
order parts, to view diagrams and to download manuals - the kind of  
tasks you can't do on dial-up and which don't have materials available  
in print.

That glimmer was that the Senate Commerce Committee announced a  
confirmation hearing for May 12 for Julius Genachowski, the pick to be  
the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

But the glimmer, much like a buffer copy, was only transitory. A  
couple of hours later, the hearing was postponed until after Memorial  
Day. Why? The Republicans now have to pick not one, but possibly two  
nominees for the FCC, and haven't decided on a package. It would be  
horrible, just horrible, for the Senate at least to proceed on the  
Democratic nominees, Genachowski and perhaps Mignon Clyburn, daughter  
of House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) to fill out the Commission  
while the Republicans hash it out. Or not. It would be nice if all  
parties grew up and let the Commission get a chairman already. Not  
happening.

The result is that the agency continues to drift while the Senate  
Republicans are trying to work the angles on Texas politics for Sen.  
Kay Bailey Hutchison, (R-TX), and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R- 
KY) ponders. It's not even clear whether the Republicans need one  
nominee, to replace FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, or two, if  
current Republican Commissioner Rob McDowell is to be jettisoned when  
his term expired in June. Hutchison, the senior Republican on the  
committee who is running for governor, has reportedly selected  
Meredith Atwell Baker, former administrator of the National  
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), who is also  
by happenstance the daughter-in-law of Texas Republican major domo  
James Baker.

That's a view of the short term. The pessimistic view of the longer  
term is - who cares? The Europeans and the rest of the world are going  
to continue to eat our lunch on broadband anyway, so it really doesn't  
matter whether it's another six weeks or whenever for the FCC to get  
fully kitted out with commissioners.

What the Europeans Are Doing

Earlier this week, the European Parliament came within a few votes of  
passing another major broadband/telecommunications policy. Only the  
continuing greed of Hollywood kept the matter from passing. The  
Parliamentarians, to their credit, voted that a judicial order is  
needed before someone's Internet service can be taken away. French  
President Nicolas Sarkozy was backing his "three strikes" law to allow  
Internet Service Providers to kick a customer off of the Internet if  
there are three accusations of copyright infringement.

(Note to the Freedom Fries crowd: Did you know that le baseball was  
such a French passion that they adopted "three strikes"? Who knew? Pas  
moi.)

Instead, the Parliament voted overwhelmingly, 407-57 for an amendment  
which provided: "that no restriction may be imposed on the fundamental  
rights and freedoms of end-users, without a prior ruling by the  
judicial authorities." The result of the popular rebellion is that  
approval of the European plan will be pushed back until next year.

Here on our side of the pond, the FCC is due to come up with a  
broadband plan by February and submit it to Congress. The Notice of  
Inquiry the FCC issued April 8 is 59 pages of question about what  
policy should be put in place to help bring back America's broadband  
penetration.

Meanwhile, the Europeans were ready to pass a 12-point program. Here  
are some highlights from the European Commission summary:

"Functional separation as a means to overcome competition problems:  
National telecoms regulators will gain the additional tool of being  
able to oblige telecoms operators to separate communication networks  
from their service branches, as a last-resort remedy. This new remedy  
was advocated in 2007 by the 27 national regulators in a unanimous  
opinion. Functional separation can rapidly improve competition in  
markets while maintaining incentives for investment in new networks.  
Functional separation has already been implemented in the UK since  
January 2006 where it triggered a surge in broadband connections (from  
100.000 unbundled lines in December 2005 to 5.5 million 3 years  
later). The new EU rules on functional separation will also add legal  
certainty for countries currently moving towards different forms of  
separation, such as Sweden, Poland and Italy, while ensuring overall  
consistency for the benefit of the single market."

[snip]
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