Broadband Divide Versus Net Neutrality

Former FCC Commissioner William Kennard argues in the NYTs that more attention should be focused on the broadband divide.

Any serious discussion of the future of the Internet should start with a basic fact: broadband is transforming every facet of communications, from entertainment and telephone services to delivery of vital services like health care. But this also means that the digital divide, once defined as the chasm separating those who had access to narrowband dial-up Internet and those who didn’t, has become a broadband digital divide.

At the same time, he paints an interesting picture of the policy agenda in Washington DC.

Unfortunately, the current debate in Washington is over “net neutrality” — that is, should network providers be able to charge some companies special fees for faster bandwidth. This is essentially a battle between the extremely wealthy (Google, Amazon and other high-tech giants, which oppose such a move) and the merely rich (the telephone and cable industries). In the past year, collectively they have spent $50 million on lobbying and advertising, effectively preventing Congress and the public from dealing with more pressing issues.

So what is his answer? Kennard advocates for a shift in the way that we fund and use the Universal Service Fund, which currently amounts to a tax on telephone subscribers. However, Kennard discloses he stands to benefit personally if a new model increased investment in firms represented by The Carlyle Group, a global investment behemoth for which he is a Managing Director.