Last January, two high-tech groups, Washington, D.C.-based Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP) and Palo Alto, Calif.,-based TechNet, rolled out reports outlining ambitious goals for wired and wireless broadband access across the country.
CSPP and TechNet envision 100 million homes and small businesses with 100 Mbps broadband access by the end of the decade, and both groups say the responsibility of making that happen belongs to the federal government.
The groups will likely get Congress' attention, but making broadband as common in homes as cable TV faces considerable obstacles.
One of those obstacles is government itself, say the two groups, calling for all levels of government to adopt or amend regulations and policies that will create a broadband-friendly environment to stimulate the build-out of infrastructure.
Spectrum Scarcity
One of the most pressing issues threatening the rollout of nationwide broadband is the dwindling supply of spectrum available to wireless carriers, said Ken Kay, CSPP's executive director.
In its report, CSPP said the United States should make 120 MHz of spectrum available to the marketplace by 2004 and another 80 MHz by 2010.
"Spectrum policy has been bifurcated among a series of [federal] agencies," Kay said. "There needs to be a holistic review of ... spectrum policy so that, instead of getting divided into little fiefdoms, we come up with a competitive analysis of spectrum that allows us to come up with a comprehensive approach."
The United States currently lags behind other countries in the availability of spectrum for commercial mobile services by as much as 50 percent, he said, and other countries aren't wasting time in making more spectrum available.
"They have in place more comprehensive, strategic plans for spectrum, while we're struggling to deal with the spectrum issue on an ad hoc basis," Kay said, adding that CSPP has lobbied the Bush administration to step in and create the impetus toward a consolidated, national strategy regarding spectrum use.
"We think that can be done," he said. "The United States just hasn't attempted to sit down and get all the interested parties in one room and try to work out their conflicting interests into a unified policy."
CSPP would like to see the federal government create a national, interagency policy group that would coordinate agencies currently involved in spectrum management and determine goals for long-term spectrum management.
Though some federal government officials acknowledge the need for a centralized spectrum-management entity, he said, making it happen won't be easy.
"The reality of trying to get some of those competing interests to sit at the same table is tough," Kay said. "Our hope is that spectrum is an area where the White House will have an interest in trying to get the competing agencies under one roof and get them to start talking to each other about how to iron out some of their differences."
Whose Job Is It?
A national policy on spectrum makes sense, because it's a finite resource that needs to be managed. But extending a national policy to other entities responsible for rolling out broadband infrastructure across the country could be tricky.
The problem is the wide variation in states' broadband needs, said Brenda Decker, president of NASTD, the Association for Telecommunications & Technology Professionals in State Government.
"Your national vision would have to be so broad that it would cover any scenario," said Decker, who is also the director of Nebraska's Division of Communications. "DSL access in 80 percent of Nebraska would be phenomenal, as far as we're concerned, but DSL access in 80 percent of New York probably wouldn't cover what they need. As you sit back and put together a national vision, I'm not sure it really would address every state's issues."
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