‘If we have the most competitive broadband market in the world we...

“If we have the most competitive broadband market in the world we'll have the best broadband market in the world,” said John Kneuer, counselor to the Dept. of Commerce and chief of President Bush’s broadband initiative, during a Heritage Foundation panel Thurs. Kneuer pushed for little or no economic regulation of broadband and emerging VoIP technologies, but said “we don’t want to let go of social regulation,” like e-911. Former Congressman David McIntosh, who headed Vice President Dan Quayle’s telecom deregulation task force, drew the distinction between “industrial policy,” in which govt. sets prices, prefers certain providers, and creates the rules, and larger initiatives to set national technology goals. “Avoid subsidies. They don’t work,” he said. Both McIntosh and Intel’s Peter Pitsch said some govt. investment may become politically necessary to allow for broadband penetration in costly, investor-unfriendly areas. Pitsch, also former FCC chief of staff, called for a “more aggressive” FCC on long-term spectrum reform. Former FCC Comr. Harold Furchtgott-Roth was most vocal in his support for Bush’s initiative, framing the initiative in terms of the Nov. election. “We should be claiming victory on broadband,” he said, adding that Democratic nominee John Kerry and his telecom advisor Reed Hundt have a program that’s “less effective and millions more costly.” “We already have universal broadband” thanks to the President’s policies, Furchtgott-Roth said, and called it a myth that “the government needs an ambitious broadband agenda.”