United
States Internet technology behind the
times
Boris
Melnikov
A
downer is when after years of dorm T1
Internet connection, you move into your
own place and discover that the best
speed on your modem is a puny 300 kilobits
per second.
Also, the connection is very finicky and routinely cuts out. But imagine: You
can get speeds up to 100 megabits per second at your home without any interruptions
in the service.
Sounds impossible, or at the very least something Ron Popeil might claim in
one of his infomercials, right? Well, millions of Japanese households have
broadband service that allows them to do just that.
Its cost is similar to what many Americans pay for inferior broadband service,
which is only available in certain areas and subject to conditions.
Unfortunately, the United States has been steadily losing its edge in new Internet
technology.
The country that gave the world e-mail has slipped from fourth to 13th in the
global rankings of broadband usage from 2001 to 2004. This problem is bigger
than whether it takes two seconds to get the latest college football scores.
It directly affects what path of economic and cultural development the United
States will take. The Internet is often called the information superhighway,
and that moniker is not just a hyperbole spouted by politicians intent on proclaiming
the dawn of a new age every four years.
It has become a key piece of public infrastructure, and its transformative
effect can be seen in the increasing number of people who telecommute for work
every day or who exchange information across distances with minimal effort.
That progress is now threatened because of the wrong-headed policies of the
U.S. government regarding adoption of the new ultra-high broadband technology
and the use of the existing infrastructure. High-speed access to the Internet
for everyone needs to be a national priority, but so far the problem has not
garnered enough attention.
The key distinction between why you can get a good Internet connection in Japan
and not in the United States today is in the way the two governments treated
new technology when it first appeared.
Japan opened its market to liberalization — allowing start-up Internet
provider companies to use phone, cable and fiber optic lines owned by telecom
monopolies for a nominal fee — the United States has been slow to do
the same.
The Federal Communications Commission has been very indecisive in enforcing
the fair competition guidelines. When the broadband policy came up for review
in 2003, the FCC decided competition between regional phone and cable companies
was plenty.
Companies that did not own the cables themselves eventually shut out of the
market. Consumers were left with only two choices: a company selling DSL access
or the cable company with cable Internet. This is in nobody’s best interests,
mostly because the telecoms themselves do not want to upgrade the networks.
Thomas Bleha, an expert in Internet broadband technology wrote, “[Cheap],
high-speed broadband would lead to widespread use of Internet telephones and
thus threaten the phone companies’ lucrative voice-telephone business,
and more inexpensive broadband would multiply outside video and movie offerings
and endanger the cable companies’ profitability.”
Such a market failure will not resolve itself, because all the parties have
an interest in the status quo, while the consumers suffer and the use falls
further behind other nations, especially in the Pacific Rim, in the technological
infrastructure gap.
The government has to step up to the plate to make sure the United States is
ready for the new developments in technology.
There are a few simple and practical steps that can be taken to insure broadband
connections become a ubiquitous piece of infrastructure just like roads, water
pipes and electricity poles.
The government should take the lead in changing regulations to allow competitors
into the currently monopolistic markets. That would help spur innovations in
broadband and other telecom areas, as well as reduce prices for consumers by
fostering competition.
Subsidies also need to be offered to companies that choose to extend broadband
networks in the hard-to-reach markets, such as rural and low-income areas.
Finally, the hodgepodge of regulations that apply to different areas of the
telecom world need to be consolidated into a uniform set of rules that will
guide all of them. Then, maybe, finally, I can get my Internet connection up
and going.
This column originally appeared in the USC Daily Trojan. |
