Wednesday, October 13, 2010

GAO Puts a New Spin on National Broadband Plan

For months, now, the country has been talking about the national broadband plan and it's alleged restoration to a so-called lagging national broadband infrastructure. Of course, as with any government initiative, the FCC's findings and the plan that they led to have been under constant scrutiny by consumers, broadband providers, and media alike. Today, a new critic weighs in: another federal agency.

The U.S. General Accounting Office (or GAO) decided to audit the FCC's findings and make sure their proposition was in good reason. Turns out, they did some digging on their own, and their stats may surprise you... I'm sure they surprised the FCC.

95% of the U.S. Population has access to broadband.

The U.S. only lags behind other nations in price, stemming from lack of competition, not in access.

The GAO is calling into question whether the government needs to step in and fund new infrastructure for existing broadband providers, or whether creating a business environment where new competition can thrive would be the better option.

The difference between the two agency's respective positions has to do with the figure of broadband access versus broadband service. It's true, still less than 80% of U.S. households are serviced with Broadband -- a figure the FCC believes marks a horrible "lag." However, the GAO is suggesting that the issue is not so much one of inaccessibility to service, but rather, affordability that causes adoption to be low, even where access is available.

So, who is right? Well, both, really. Even if the GAO is correct in their assessment that 95% of Americans could get to broadband if they could afford it, it will require infrastructure in order to add competitors, and thereby drive prices down. Currently, those most difficult to be reached are also the most expensive to reach with broadband signal... and therefore making an expensive service to boot. The FCC's intention in developing new infrastructure is to bring even more access options, and thereby increase the rate of adoption.

Will it work? What do you think? What is the answer to our broadband lag? Or is there a lag at all?

Labels: "Internet infrastructure", FCC, GOA, National Broadband Plan, Rural Broadband