Only Connect - Should Broadband Access Be a Right?

Finland makes broadband access a right, $7 billion US stimulus for rural broadband improvements

by Joshua-Michéle Ross | @jmichele | comments: 11

This week gave us two reasons to reconsider the state of broadband connectivity in the US. First, Finland has announced that it will guarantee broadband access as a right for all its citizens:

Second, Yochai Benkler and the Berkman Center released a study of broadband Internet transitions and policy. A global review of how connected various countries are - and the policies that have performed well to stimulate connectivity, both in-home and mobile. While the U.S. has over 7 billion in stimulus dollars going toward improvements in rural broadband, money isn't the same as policy, and it is hard to dispute that we have fallen behind:

On those few measures where we have reasonably relevant historical data, it appears that the United States opened the first decade of the 21st centuries in the top quintile in penetration and prices, and has been surpassed by other countries over the course of the decade.

Benkler makes it clear that government policy has played a role in our decline. The U.S. began lagging as soon as the FCC abandoned it's position of "open access" and allowed telecom companies to lock down networks. (see page 12 of the report).

As our economy continues to lose mass in favor of information-based goods (U.S. exports lost 50% of their physical weight per dollar from 1993 to 1999*) and we continue to see the decoupling of workforce from workplace, connectivity is a critical factor in economic exchange and competitive advantage. Countries that build wide, fast networks to the last mile will have a huge leg up.

If government works best when it creates the conditions that allow citizens the maximum opportunity to succeed, two things seem clear. First, broadband access is a key piece of infrastructure and a necessary condition to many new jobs and opportunities. Second, our policies should steer back towards open access to support that right. Benkler is pretty clear that countries running half a generation ahead of the US (Japan, Korea etc.) are doing so as a result of open access policies. Achieving these ends does not necessarily require the government to own (or pay for) the solution. As Benkler notes on page 13 "there are models of high performing countries, like France, that invested almost nothing directly, and instead relied almost exclusively on fostering a competitive environment."

On a personal note, I divide my time between the US and France and I can tell you, my French broadband (in a rural, medieval village mind you) crushes any corporate workplace connection in the US. What do you think? Should broadband access be considered a right? Is "universal connectivity" just too big a job? And what should government's policy-making role be in all of this?

Four short links: 15 October 2009

Open Access, Right to Broadband, Machine Learning Textbook, Javascript Performance Art

by Nat Torkington | @gnat | comments: 1

1. Open Access Week -- world-wide, dedicated to raising awareness of open access to research. (via Creative Commons Aotearoa).
2. 1Mb Broadband Access Becomes Legal Right -- Starting next July, every person in Finland will have the right to a one-megabit broadband connection.
3. The Elements of Statistical Learning 2ed -- classic book (I have the 1st edition) that is now available as a free PDF download. (via Hacker News)
4. vi in Javascript -- yup, someone's written a vi clone in Javascript. (via monkchips on Twitter)

A Crowd-Sourced National Communications Census

by Carl Malamud | @CarlMalamud | comments: 9

My last tour of duty in DC was Chief Technology Officer at the Center for American Progress. One of the fun things I got to do was figure out what everybody else did, including my fellow Senior Fellows, the folks that generated most of the policy work, many of whom are now occupying senior posts in the new administration.

One of the most fascinating was Mark Lloyd. An experienced Emmy-winning television producer, communications lawyer, and community activist, Mark is the author of a well-regarded book about communications and democracy and numerous columns. He's currently at the Leadership Conference for Civil Rights.

The project Mark Lloyd was working on was a National Broadband Map to show our true communications capabilities. And, he wanted to crowd-source the map from community groups, supplementing that with census and other data from several different places to create a big mash-up. This was in 2005, around the same time Adrian Holovaty was thinking about chicagocrime.org.

I think the time is now ripe for this project, and when the new folks at the FCC asked me what I thought they should look at I pitched Mark's idea (they're reaching out to lots and lots of folks, which is a great sign). I asked for posting privileges here at Radar so I could pitch the idea to the Internet as well since I'm taking your name in vain as the folks that would make this happen.

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