United States' Broadband Goals: Managing 'Spillover Effects' to Increase Availability, Adoption and Investment

NECA and Princeton Edge Lab released a paper of case studies, called network scenarios, to prompt an exchange of ideas about systematic approaches and the science needed for achieving the policy objectives in the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan: universal broadband availability, high adoption rates, and efficient and sustainable investment in infrastructure. The scenarios highlight the pervasiveness and importance of spillover effects where an individual participant in the broadband market can alter the efficiency and value proposition of the entire U.S. broadband network. The paper also highlights the range of further research and data collection necessary to understand critical issues such as two-sided cost recovery, usage-based pricing, and the dynamics across the divide between "pipe" providers and content providers.