Free broadband access is a right, not a privilege
As the FCC nears its vote on whether to open AWS-3 for auction, the Commerce Department has made a stand in favor of stifling innovation
Follow @infoworld"No one is in control anymore!"
That may sound like a dire call for help in an alien-filled sci-fi movie, but instead it was the happy pronouncement of Milo Medin, co-founder of M2Z Networks, one of the companies awaiting the FCC's decision on whether it will auction AWS-3 (Advanced Wireless Service-3) spectrum.
Should it go through, the auction would require the winner to roll out a free broadband service in a reasonable amount of time and over an area that includes more than just the major cities.
[ For more on AWS-3, see "'Free spectrum' could shape future of wireless" ]
When Medin says, "No one is in control anymore," he simply means that there is no central command, as there was in the bad old days of the Ma Bell network that decided what innovations were allowed. Innovation comes from everywhere and anywhere, and if there is indeed a broadband network that is as accessible and as free as the air we breathe, then Medin believes there will be a flowering of innovation the likes of which we have never seen before.
Unfortunately, just when things were looking brightest, it appears that Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez is trying to ambush that goal. Maybe he too believes that no one will be in control but doesn't like the idea.
On Dec. 10, Gutierrez, who is also considered President Bush's chief advisor on telecommunications, sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin opposing the FCC's proposed Dec. 18 vote [PDF] on whether to hold the auction. In the letter, Gutierrez basically says his view is that of the administration, which opposes the auction due to "price and product mandates."
In other words, the price of zero is the problem.
Moreover, the letter states, "It would constrain the provider's use of this spectrum."
Translation: Requiring the winner to provide free broadband access is unacceptable.
According to a Pew study, there are about 100 million Americans, most either in low-income city neighborhoods or in rural areas, without access to broadband [PDF]. And for those who might sneer at the idea and say that giving those folks free broadband access is like having the government guarantee that everyone has a television and cable service, it is not.
Broadband, as Medin sees it, and so do I, is the technology over which everyone will communicate in the next 5 or 10 years. To be without broadband access as a means of communications is to disenfranchise those who can't afford it.
