As Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin pushes for a wireless alternative to the telephone-cable TV broadband duopoly, and the Bush administration predicts it will make good on its vow to make universal, affordable high-speed Internet access available this year, a legal battle is escalating over public disclosure and accuracy of the government’s broadband database.
On one level, the skirmish differs little from countless others involving access to government records through the Freedom of Information Act. But this one has potentially major implications for telecom policy and President Bush’s broadband initiative.
In April 2004, Bush not only said his goal was to see broadband technology “in every corner of our country by 2007,” but also to have broadband competition shortly thereafter. Right now, both goals appear elusive. The White House has been vulnerable to criticism because U.S. broadband penetration lags behind a dozen or so other countries, a ranking the administration discounts as misleading.
To know or not to know?
The Center for Public Integrity sued the FCC in September, following a bureau-level decision rejecting the watchdog group’s FOIA request for broadband data closely guarded by the commission. CPI argues the public has a right to know about the local availability of broadband-a driver of economic growth and information dissemination in society-and the accuracy of the government’s broadband data. The Government Accountability Office last year said the FCC’s compilation of broadband service providers per ZIP code was inflated and that the agency’s data collection did not accurately reflect actual broadband deployment throughout the United States.
The FCC’s wireline bureau denied CPI’s request for broadband data collected from wireless, wireline, cable TV and satellite operators twice a year. The bureau concluded the records “contain commercially sensitive, competitive information and that release would cause harm to the entities that submitted the requested information” and thus fall within one of FOIA’s exemptions. In addition, the FCC said the broadband data-collected since 2000-constitute agency work product that’s generally off limits to public inspection.
CTIA against disclosure
The cellphone industry agrees, noting the critical juncture for the wireless industry insofar as its foray into a broadband arena dominated by Bell telephone and cable TV giants.
“Wireless broadband is a relatively new service in which carriers are investing billions of dollars in different technologies and service offerings in order to compete among themselves and other broadband service providers. It is precisely this environment that disclosure of the data being sought by plaintiff would do the most harm,” said cellphone trade association CTIA in support of the FCC.
CTIA underscored the point, saying, “Compelled disclosure of the data being sought by plaintiff would cause substantial harm to the carriers who have made substantial investments in wireless broadband. In addition, it could reduce the incentive to make the substantial long-term investments required to develop a competitive marketplace by forcibly revealing competitors’ business strategies and their successes and failures.”
Who exactly are these competitors? The two largest Bell telephone companies that help comprise the wireline half of the broadband duopoly-AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.-control the two largest U.S. wireless carriers.
Broadband priority?
Even as the FCC’s Martin continues to call broadband deployment and access his top priority, it is unclear whether he has support from others in the Bush administration. The president did not utter the word ‘broadband’ in his State of the Union address last week, and his lone reference to ‘information technology’ was made in the context of its application to reduce health costs and medical errors.
John Kneuer, the president’s top telecom adviser as director of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, did not list broadband among his top priorities for 2007. At the same time, Kneuer expressed confidence the president will achieve his goal of universal, affordable broadband access this year.
