Foes Unite: Google, Telcos Join Broadband Push - Page 2

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A unified front?

Part of what may be holding the U.S. back is a definition of terms. The CWA runs a Web site called SpeedMatters.org, which champions connection speed as an essential ingredient of the broadband shortfall and calls for the FCC to boost its minimum benchmark for broadband service, currently set at 768 Kbps for download traffic.

Cohen's group supports a plan advanced by Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.V., to aim for speeds of 10 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream for everyone in America by 2010.

The new coalition isn't making such specific recommendations, however.

Instead, it offers a list of five broadly drawn goals, such as providing every American with affordable access to a high-speed broadband connection, and enacting policies to stimulate private investment and consumer adoption of broadband.

The vague language reflects some of the still-unresolved differences of the coalition's members.

"There are important principles in these goals that reflect the fact that we don't yet have full consensus on how to reach those goals, but we're getting to an evolved sense of what those goals should be," said Jim Baller, a principal at the Baller Herbst Law Group who was instrumental in organizing the coalition.

The less controversial part of the group's policy paper calls for courting private-sector investment and consumer adoption to tackle the broadband deficiency on both the supply and demand sides.

According to the policy paper, tax incentives, grants and subsidies from the FCC's Universal Service Fund could encourage providers to build out more robust networks. Fresh approaches to spectrum allocation could lead to affordable access to innovative new networks.

On the demand side, the coalition calls for all levels of government to take a leading role in educating Americans about the value of high-speed broadband connections -- and teaching the skills to use them.

For those still without computers, the coalition suggests that federal programs, grants and subsidies could help ensure that all Americans have access to the basic equipment.

[cob:Pull_Quote]However, the members' consensus could break down over the ever-controversial issue of Net neutrality, the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally by network operators -- a concept that's sometimes known as the third-rail of technology policy.

The policy paper splits the middle on Net neutrality, declaring that "access to the Internet should, to the maximum feasible extent, be open to all users service providers, content providers and application providers."

Then, the next line reads: "Network operators must have the right to manage their networks responsibly, pursuant to clear and workable guidelines and standards."

Walking that tightrope may have helped to bring outspoken Net neutrality advocates such as Google and the media-reform group Free Press under the same umbrella with AT&T and organizations like the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, both hardened foes of network neutrality laws.

"I think the endgame of an open, generative Internet is what unites us here," Google's Whitt said. "What may divide us in certain measures down the road is how to get there."

Comcast, the cable provider recently rebuked by the FCC for how it managed traffic on its network, did not sign the group's policy paper.

A Call to Action is certainly not the first broadband-themed policy initiative. For this one to succeed where others have failed, the signatories realize that they need to follow up with more targeted objectives once the new administration takes shape and the next Congress convenes.

"Setting up a [policy] framework implies that we'll fill in that framework at some time," said Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press.

To that end, the group plans to hold another event in the spring to announce more specific policy proposals, assuming they can get past the Net neutrality hurdle.