The FCC Can’t Handle the Truth
September 9th, 2008 by AdamLynnAmerica is the birthplace of the Internet, but judging by the current state of the broadband market, you’d think we’re a late bloomer. U.S. consumers face high prices, slow speeds and little to no choice among broadband providers. The Federal Communications Commission – the agency charged by Congress with the duty of facilitating a top-rate broadband marketplace — has done little to improve this situation. In fact, they’ve actually managed to make things worse.
The FCC is compounding the problem faced by U.S. consumers by submitting yet another misleading report to Congress — a report that paints a rosy picture of the U.S. broadband market.
Every few years, the FCC is required by Congress to submit a report that answers a basic question: Is high-speed Internet, or broadband, “being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion”?
This year, the FCC concluded that the answer is yes.
The FCC asked for public comment on this question before issuing its report. Traditionally, these comment periods have amounted to little more than flattery and congratulations from Internet Service Providers. The ISPs pat the FCC on the back for continuing to “deregulate” the Internet, and, in response, the FCC tells Congress that the ISPs are great and that everything is just dandy in the U.S. broadband market.
But this time, consumer groups led by Free Press decided to crash the party. Simply by pointing out the facts, it was easy to illustrate the sorry state of the U.S. broadband market. The FCC can’t say that broadband deployment is proceeding at a reasonable pace, because they’ve defined broadband in a way that ignores reality and the will of Congress.
Congress defines high-speed Internet as the “capability that enables users to originate and receive high-quality voice, data, graphics and video telecommunications using any technology.”
Note the use of the word “originate” in this definition. When Congress established this standard, it clearly wanted to see the deployment of two-way communications technologies, not one-way technologies like cable TV. The ability to originate content depends on the upload speed of a broadband connection. To simply originate a standard quality television signal, a customer would need 2 to 4 Megabits per second (Mbps) of upload speed. To actually provide Internet users with the type of high-quality video envisioned by Congress, we would need an upload speed much higher than this, perhaps closer to 40Mbps. Yet many U.S. ISPs only offer 1Mbps or less of upload speed.
Take a look at Qwest’s latest “deal.” For more than $100 per month, you will receive a connection that has a download speed of 20 Mbps, but an upload speed of less than 1Mbps. Clearly, this level of asymmetry is not what Congress had in mind.
But the fact that the U.S. broadband marketplace is plagued with connections that have upload speeds that are barely better than dial-up doesn’t seem to trouble the FCC. In June, the FCC concluded that “broadband” is, in fact, being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion. Since the agency had no defense against the facts presented by consumer groups, it simply ignored them.
The FCC’s conclusion is so wrong that it cannot be allowed to stand. In early July, Free Press and other consumer groups filed a “petition for reconsideration” arguing that the FCC broke the law because it had, among other reasons, “offered an explanation for its decision that runs counter to the evidence before the agency.” We’re asking the FCC to reverse its findings.
Last week, the FCC asked for public comment on this petition. Tell the FCC what you think about your “broadband” connection speeds. Go to the FCC site, plug “07-45” in the box marked “proceeding,” and make your voice heard.
