Slow steps to high-speed broadband

The National Broadband Plan that the Federal Communications Commission released Tuesday is ambitious in the right way, staking out such immodest national goals as building the most innovative and fastest wireless networks on the planet and vastly improving the wired infrastructure within a decade. But the commission moved so cautiously toward those goals, it’s hard to see at this point how it’s going to reach them.

The commission’s voluminous report detailing the plan describes broadband as “the great infrastructure challenge of the early 21st century” because of the Internet’s key role in so many aspects of the economy, and we agree. Only one part of that challenge would be met with tax dollars: the construction of a mobile broadband network for police and rescue workers. Everything else would be left up to private companies and their investors.

To achieve ubiquitous broadband, the plan would gradually convert the existing user fees that subsidize phone lines in rural and low-income homes into subsidies for high-speed Internet connections. And to improve the speed and affordability of broadband services, the plan aims to increase competition among phone, cable TV and wireless companies. After all, the plan notes, cable and phone companies in competitive markets have spent more to upgrade their Internet services than those that dominate their markets.

The problem is that competition hasn’t been intense enough for U.S. broadband providers to keep pace with increasing speeds and lower prices overseas, or to meet the burgeoning demand for bandwidth, especially in wireless. And the situation may soon get worse: The commission warned that cable modem services are about to leap so far ahead of DSL in terms of bandwidth that they’ll face no real competition for very high-speed services in the three-fourths of the country where no companies are offering fiber-optic lines to the home.

The plan proposes several modest steps to make it easier for new broadband companies to enter markets and for consumers to judge what’s available. The commission resisted calls from some consumer groups for a more aggressive approach that would force broadband companies to offer rivals access to all or part of their networks at wholesale prices, concerned that it would stifle investment. Instead, it announced it would just review its competition rules.

The boldest part of the plan is its proposal that local television stations be paid to give up some of their airwaves to make room for powerful new wireless broadband services. It’s a compelling idea that requires Congress’ approval, but it’s likely to die on Capitol Hill unless broadcasters go along. That’s not a rebuke of the plan or the commission’s pragmatism; it’s just an acknowledgment of the fight that lies ahead.