IP: Broadband access a concern for Farber (Farber's visit to Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas)

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Broadband access a concern for Farber
>
> Outgoing FCC official believes industry owns much of the blame for lag in
> services
>
> 03/03/2001
>
> By Vikas Bajaj / The Dallas Morning News
>
> RICHARDSON - Getting high-speed Internet access to homes will be the Federal
> Communications Commission's biggest challenge, the agency's outgoing chief
> technology officer said in a speech here Friday.
>
> Deployment of digital subscriber lines and cable modems has been painfully
> slow, Dr. David J. Farber told a conference room packed with
> telecommunications professionals.
>
> "For 10 years, people have promised broadband to the home, but it hasn't
> happened," said Dr. Farber, who is also a University of Pennsylvania
> professor of telecommunications systems.
>
> "How it gets fixed is one of Mike Powell's biggest problems," he said,
> referring to the new FCC chairman.
>
> Dr. Farber, a renowned and outspoken technology expert, said he was voicing
> his personal views and not speaking for the FCC.
>
> DSL and cable modem technologies have been around for years, but the
> industry only started deploying them in the last few years and only a tiny
> fraction of Americans have the services.
>
> Many customers have complained about the quality of the service and
> installation problems.
>
> Verizon Communications Inc., the nation's largest phone company, contends
> that the FCC has burdened phone companies with more regulation and oversight
> than rival cable firms, hampering DSL deployment.
>
> For example, phone companies must allow rivals to lease lines to sell
> competing services, but there is no such requirement on cable firms.
>
> "National regulation has adhered to outmoded rules designed for a bygone
> era," said Bill Kula, a Verizon spokesman. "Frankly, customers today have a
> broadband choice between DSL and cable, but regulation doesn't treat the two
> options equally."
>
> (The FCC placed open access requirements on AOL's merger with Time Warner.
> The nation's second-largest cable firm must allow rivals to sell high-speed
> access over its network.)
>
> Dr. Farber conceded that regulatory hurdles have made it more difficult for
> phone companies to bring DSL to more Americans, but he said the industry
> shoulders much of the blame.
>
> He also said the digital divide, a term referring to disparate availability
> of Internet and high-speed services to urban and rural and poor and well-off
> Americans, is a great threat to the country.
>
> "We have to bridge that gap or else we are going to have a very fragmented
> country and world," he said.
>
> Rural towns hundreds of miles from an on-ramp to the information
> superhighway will fall farther behind urban areas, he said, because
> businesses need broadband connections to be viable.
>
> Bridging the urban-rural chasm will be very difficult, because it's more
> expensive to provide high-speed service to sparsely populated areas.
>
> The government's role in funding rural access is a hotly debated topic in
> Washington and state capitals such as Austin.
>
> "It's a difficult problem," Dr. Farber said. "It's going to take an
> innovative approach."
>
> Mr. Kula contends that freeing phone companies from regulation will
> encourage investments that will whittle down the divide.
>
> "Progress has been made," he said, "but we need regulatory relief to make
> the digital divide look less like the Grand Canyon and more like the Palo
> Duro Canyon."
>
> Dr. Farber also talked about the challenges facing the wireless industry in
> developing and deploying next generation technology that aims to deliver
> high-speed data services to mobile phones and other handheld devices.
>
> Cellular companies will need new spectrum to launch so-called
> third-generation services, also known as 3G.
>
> In the United States, the spectrum the FCC wants wireless providers to use
> is occupied by broadcasters, who are unwilling to part with the frequency.
>
> In Europe, auctions have bid up the price of spectrum to astronomical
> levels, raising questions about operators' indebtedness and how much they
> will have to charge to make money, Dr. Farber said.
>
> Only Japan seems to have an unobstructed path to 3G services.
>
>
>
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