National Broadband Plan Still Important Four Years Later, Its Authors Say
Four years after its release, the FCC’s National Broadband Plan remains important, key staffers who worked on the plan said at an Independent Technology and & Innovation Foundation symposium Wednesday. Manager Blair Levin said the biggest gap in the plan in retrospect was its lack of focus on data privacy and security: “If a plan were to be redone, I think you'd focus a lot more on that.” Sunday marked the four-year anniversary of an FCC vote approving a statement of principles on broadband, though the plan itself was forwarded to the White House without a commissioner vote (CD March 17/10 p1).
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"I think it was worth it,” said Levin, now at the Aspen Institute. “I think my wife might have a different view because it was a lot of work. … From the country’s point of view there’s no question it was worth it, whether you look at the economics, just the incentive auction alone will pay for the plan many, many times over.” The concept of an incentive auction to open up broadcast spectrum for wireless broadband was first floated as part of the plan.
Levin would do some things differently if he had a second chance, he said, though conceding that kind of thing is not often acknowledged in Washington. “In business … if you didn’t change your point of view when facts changed, you lost your job,” he said. “In Washington, if you ever admit that you're changing your point of view you'll lose your job.” For one thing, the FCC probably needs to “reset expectations” for how much spectrum may be made available for wireless broadband, Levin said. But he also said he’s more optimistic than he was a few years ago that more spectrum will come online. The plan recognized four key needs, Levin said: driving fiber deeper, using spectrum more efficiently, getting everyone online and using the platform to improve delivery of public goods.
The U.S. has made surprising progress on fiber and adoption, though not because of anything the government has done, Levin said. “On the fiber side, Google has not just sparked activities in about 40 communities now, but there’s been a lot of competitive reaction” from both incumbents and new market entrants, he said. “On the adoption side, Comcast is clearly leading. They're doing a great job and deserve praise for both the increase in the momentum as well as making it permanent. One reason they're succeeding is that like Google they're a learning machine.” Google and Comcast offer two opposing models for spurring adoption of broadband, he said.
One unanticipated change that has spurred adoption is the growth in smartphones, said John Horrigan, independent technology policy consultant and former researcher for the plan. An early slide presentation on the plan cited research that by 2012, 25 percent of Americans would own smartphones, he said. “The real number was closer to 50 percent,” he said. “Smartphones certainly have changed a lot when it comes to access to the Internet and when you glue smartphone access together with home broadband adoption you get a little more than 80 percent of Americans have what I call ‘advanced broadband access.'”
Mohit Kaushal, now a partner at Aberdare Ventures, who helped write the health care section of the plan, joined the conference via Skype. “If we had really succeeded he'd be a holographic image sitting at this table right now,” Levin joked.