BROADBAND FOCUS SHOULD BE ON ADOPTION, MEHLMAN SAYS

Key challenge facing broadband is spurring adoption, not deployment, key Commerce Dept. official said Mon.

As he did 18 months ago, Asst. Secy.-Technology Policy Bruce Mehlman told National Summit for Broadband Deployment hosted by telecom groups National Exchange Carriers Assn. (NECA) and National Assn. of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) that focus should be on demand side of broadband, saying supply continued to grow. He said that Technology Administration had been focusing on demand side of broadband while FCC and NTIA examined regulatory barriers.

With as many as 90% of Americans having access to at least one broadband provider, “the broadband revolution is alive and well,” Mehlman said, acknowledging that only about 1 in 5 with option of broadband took it. He said this was his 24th speech on broadband since his summit speech in 2001 and he continued his cheerleading for technology. From a policy perspective, he said good news was that “there is universal agreement that broadband is a very good thing… [it] is not a question of whether we should do it, but when we can do it by… not why but how.”

Mehlman outlined several steps Bush Administration was taking to promote broadband: (1) Pushing economic stimulus plans, such as one that passed last year with accelerated depreciation schedules and one pending in Congress now that would triple expensing write-offs for small business. (2) Opposing Internet access taxes. (3) Supporting permanent extension of R&D tax credit. (4) Coordinating broadband usage in federal govt. (5) Making efforts through NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory to improve and standardize interface with federal rights of way. (6) Using efforts by Victory’s deputy Mike Gallagher, whom Mehlman called “the spectrum king,” to clear much-needed spectrum. Mehlman also had praise for FCC Chmn. Powell for Triennial Review that Mehlman said “purports to adhere” to recommendations of High-Tech Broadband Coalition.

Sen. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Rep. English (R-Pa.) hope to use economic stimulus debate as way to move their legislation that would offer tax credits to rural broadband providers. Asked about that after his speech, Mehlman cautioned that he wasn’t speaking for Administration’s economic team, but that Rockefeller-English bill, while laudatory, “isn’t economic stimulus legislation.” Meanwhile, NECA Vp-Gen. Counsel Kenneth Levy announced at conference that study to be released this summer would suggest that technological innovations had reduced cost of rural DSL deployment, with cost now less than half that of 2 years ago. Study 2 years ago suggested that upgrading remaining nonbroadband rural telephone lines, all 3.3 million miles of them, would cost $10.9 million.

Administration also can encourage broadband adoption by creating more comfortable environment for consumers, for example by cracking down on ID theft, online fraud and piracy, Mehlman said, and by partnering with private sector on cybersecurity. “One thing we have not yet done, and I personally hope we do not, is mandate technologies, standards or performance requirements,” he said. Noting that many had promoted public policy goal of 100 Mbps broadband to 100 million homes by 2010 (those include TechNet and Telecom Industry Assn.), Mehlman -- former Cisco Systems executive -- said “with the unrelenting pace of innovation I personally fear 100 Mbps may not be enough.”

“We've got to solve the digital copyright challenges,” Mehlman said, as way to lead to more legitimate digital content being offered on broadband networks. “I believe the federal government has a role” in the debate, he said, “but this is primarily a market challenge.”