WASHINGTON-FCC Chairman Michael Powell said the diverse options for broadband-including both unlicensed and licensed choices-make America strong even if others, including his fellow commissioners, believe the United States is lagging the rest of the world.
“This country finds its greatest strength, as we so often say, in its diversity, and this report shows that American’s broadband infrastructure is built upon the most diverse and therefore the most strongest foundation possible. It describes a marketplace built upon multiple broadband platforms,” said Powell.
The Federal Communications Commission Thursday released its fourth report on the state of broadband deployment and, pursuant to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, it declared it “reasonable and timely,” noting that there has been a tripling of broadband subscribers since the last report.
“The FCC has made it our top priority to encourage the deployment of broadband facilities and services. . On the wireless front, the commission has allocated new licensed and unlicensed spectrum for broadband services, provided increased flexibility in existing spectrum bands, and established secondary markets to facilitate more efficient use of spectrum,” said FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy. “The vast majority of Americans now have access to broadband services and the divide between urban and rural areas, and between high-income and low-income populations, is shrinking dramatically. While the overall rate of subscription to broadband services lags far behind the availability of such services, our job as regulators is to make sure consumers have the opportunity to purchase broadband services. As with any new technology, the penetration rates will climb as content and price become more attractive to consumers.”
Powell noted that a majority of American Internet users use broadband rather than dial-up. “A majority of households-and I would emphasize not ZIP codes-have opted for broadband over dial-up,” he said.
The ZIP-code reference was a direct shot at FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, who along with fellow Democrat FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein dissented from the report. Copps has often criticized the FCC staff for reporting broadband deployment by ZIP code. He continued that criticism. “As for that ZIP-code methodology we continue to use, a friend of mine pointed out-ZIP codes don’t subscribe to broadband; people subscribe to broadband.”
Broadband deployment is a hot political topic, as noted by Copps. “Recently we have heard from the very top of our government; we have heard a goal of universal broadband by 2007. I don’t think we are making acceptable progress toward that goal,” Copps said.
But Powell had a different take. “Deployment over multiple platforms is the best way to meet the president’s goal of universal broadband by 2007,” Powell said.
Both President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Democratic presidential candidate, have said universal broadband is essential to America’s economy with Bush specifically saying it needed to be universally available by 2007.