5 Signs Our Broadband Plan May Already Be In Trouble

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: August 14, 2009 9:15:08 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] 5 Signs Our Broadband Plan May Already Be In  
Trouble

5 Signs Our Broadband Plan May Already Be In Trouble
Meet the new heavily-lobbied boss. Same as the old heavily-lobbied boss?
06:08PM Thursday Aug 13 2009 by Karl Bode
<http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/5-Signs-Our-Broadband-Plan-May-Already-Be-In-Trouble-103936 
>

As the government continues to work on crafting our first national  
broadband plan, there's been a lot of talk about how that process is  
consumer-centric, transparent, and data-driven. The FCC has spent the  
last few months talking about how they might actually start using real  
data to make policy decisions (astounding). Uncle Sam has unveiled a  
series of workshops to help consumers feel involved in the process  
(amazing). The FCC even says they'll be using more scientists and  
engineers and fewer lawyers and policy wonks (incredible).

But beneath all of this recent bubbly enthusiasm, there's some  
telltale signs that corporate lobbyists are still running the show,  
transparency isn't quite the priority the government claims, and  
consumers are little more than an afterthought. Yes, it's early, and  
these are all things that may not be show stoppers. But they're all  
things that need to be watched lest the process devolve into farce. A  
transparent, well-documented farce, but a farce all the same. Five  
things that need watching over the next 188 days if consumers want  
this to work:

Uncle Sam Is Already Wimping Out On Data Collection

If you've been paying attention the last ten years, you know that ISPs  
have fought tooth and nail in court to avoid having to release any raw  
data into the public sphere, be it coverage gaps, network congestion,  
or real world throughput.

ISPs like to argue they fight the release of such data because it  
would tip off competitors, but in reality incumbent ISPs know  
precisely where a competitor offers service and at what speeds,  
because they spend millions of dollars on intelligence gathering.  
Think Verizon doesn't know exactly where competitors offer service  
before it invests $24 billion to deploy fiber to the home service?

The real reason ISPs don't want that data exposed is because it would  
show limited competition and significant coverage gaps, resulting in  
new laws aimed at fixing things, and in turn lowering revenues.  
Instead, the government has willfully used flawed data that suggests  
everything is rosy. The illusion of a competitive, rosy broadband  
market has allowed government (and the lobbyists who love them) to  
justify the elimination of price controls and other consumer  
protection laws.

The result of years of government pandering to industry lobbyists,  
sucking down junk science lattes and ignoring consumer welfare? U.S.  
broadband customers are paying more money for less bandwidth with more  
restrictions than dozens of developed countries. Step one to turning  
things around? Making sure that the government has accurate,  
independently verifiable data. While the government has clearly  
admitted this problem and been paying lip service to it, their actions  
are busy saying something completely different.

After being lobbied by telecom carriers, the Commerce Department this  
week announced they'd be drastically reducing the volume of data ISPs  
have to provide Uncle Sam. ISPs will no longer have to provide  
government with data on connection speed, actual price paid per user,  
technology type or address-specific data. Instead, carriers now only  
have to hand over vague, market-area data that's not particularly  
useful in forming policy.

It's August. What other metrics will be watered down by industry  
lobbyists by the time the plan runs the lobbyist gauntlet and gets  
finalized in February? Why not just force ISPs to sign a certified  
certificate of their own awesomeness, and make hard data completely  
optional.

[snip]
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