South Korea’s gigabit broadband woes should serve as object lesson for FCC regulators

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission now has collected more than 3 million comments in a major proceeding that may reclassify broadband Internet service to fit within the largely- inflexible common carrier model in Title II of the Communications Act of 1934.

Some advocates continue to cite other countries, such as South Korea, as leapfrogging ahead of our nation’s broadband network capabilities. A closer look at actual marketplace events there, rather than press reports from afar, reveals that what has transpired is quite different from what others have reported as fact, however. A closer look at European broadband investment models, and a better understanding of actual broadband developments in countries such as South Korea, should help inform the FCC and Congress as they deliberate our nation’s future broadband path and overall Internet growth.

[Brotman teaches at Harvard Law School and is a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Center for Technology Innovation at The Brookings Institution]