The Pew data about African-American broadband use is even worse; it is based on a telephone survey of only 190 adults. Public policy should not be based on such limited surveys of such small samples. But then the American public does not pay Pew to gather data to assist the public or legislators in determining public policy. We do pay the FCC.
In addition to Senator Inouye’s proposed legislation, Rep. Rick Boucher has slightly revised and reintroduced his Universal Service Reform Act (H.R.2054), which would in part redefine broadband at 1Mbps and set a goal of achieving that within five years. Note that the majority of Japanese already have access to broadband 50 times that speed.
Rep. Ed Markey is also drafting legislation: “The Broadband Census of America Act,” which would reportedly require the FCC to increase its broadband threshold speed from 200Kbps to 2Mbps and require deployment information with at least the detail of nine-digit zip codes.
Sen. Inouye’s bill is the best of the bunch. Section 3 of that act would “establish a new definition of second generation broadband to reflect a data rate that is not less than the data rate required to reliably transmit full-motion, high-definition video.” I would add two terms: real-time and interactive.
We want advanced telecommunications service that will allow real-time robust two-way communication of full-motion, high-definition video. We want real-time two-way interactive transmission capability because it will help visiting nurses in homes and emergency technicians in the field communicate effectively with doctors in big city hospitals hundreds of miles away. We want high speed two-way interactive transmission because communication in the digital age should be from each to all. If this standard is good enough for the French and the Scandinavians and the Japanese and the Canadians, why isn’t it good enough for us?
Let’s stop setting standards and designing public policy based on what the private telecommunications and cable companies could do yesterday and what they are willing to tell us. Congress should set a standard for advanced telecommunications services that is worthy of our country and relevant to our needs, and challenge the so-called information providers to meet that. But Congress must also begin to hold the current FCC accountable.
