Broadband technology is changing our lives, our economy and our culture. By making it possible to access, use, and share information, news, and entertainment with ever increasing speed, broadband knits geographically-distant individuals and businesses more closely together, increases our productivity and enriches our quality of life.
Category: Opposition
Scott Wallsten: Everything You Hear about Broadband in the U.S. is Wrong
The supposedly poor state of broadband in the U.S. relative to other OECD countries has generated tremendous consternation. Conventional wisdom about these rankings, however, is wrong and should not be used as a basis for making policies. First, the OECD data are unreliable and misleading. More careful analyses show that the U.S. actually compares quite favorably to the rest of the world in terms of household broadband penetration. Second, comparisons of actual—as opposed to advertised—bandwidth across countries reveal that broadband speeds in the U.S. are similar to most other advanced countries.
Scott Wallsten: Towards Effective U.S. Broadband Policies
OECD statistics show that the U.S. has fewer broadband subscribers per capita than some other countries, causing great consternation. This concern has contributed to growing calls for government intervention including open access regulations much like the failed unbundling regime that the U.S. recently ended.
Scott Cleland, The Precursor Group
“A ‘national broadband plan’ is a codeword for a 1970’s-style government ‘industrial policy’ where the government decides what technologies consumers get and which companies will succeed of fail.”
Former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchgott-Roth
“In the next few weeks, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development will issue its semiannual report on broadband penetration, and America is likely to have a middling ranking (it was 12th out of 30 countries in the most recent OECD numbers of a few months ago). Its standing is fodder for many politicians, including several candidates for president, who say we need a national broadband policy. They are wrong: Industrial policies, including for broadband, are bad ideas.”