Why it’s time for the US to get serious about its broadband problem

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[Commentary] The debate over today’s international broadband rankings in misguided. A single metric is likely misleading. More important, given the long timetable of network deployments, what is true today reflects decisions of years past. The right debate is what should we be doing today to position ourselves to lead in the decade to come and that debate must evolve over time, as markets and technology change.

The prospect of gigabit networks is something to wish for, particularly in light of the court decision throwing out the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality order. In a world of abundant bandwidth, concerns about allocating scarce bandwidth in an anti-competitive way diminish. If, however, we want to lead in the next generation of the Internet, as we did in its first, we need leadership that models itself on generals who focus on supply chains, rather than talking heads who focus on sound bites. A strategy premised on “build it and they will come” is questionable but if our national policy is premised on “ask and they will build it” there is no question that our country will struggle to lead in the bandwidth delivered economy of the 21st century.

[Levin the Executive Director of Gig.U, a group of research university communities seeking to accelerate next generation networks in their communities to support economic and educational development. He previously served as Executive Director of the National Broadband Plan effort and as FCC Chief of Staff]


Why it’s time for the US to get serious about its broadband problem