Dave Farber
2018-08-16 14:51:34 UTC
Date: August 16, 2018 at 11:12:55 PM GMT+9
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] ISPs say they can't expand broadband unless gov't gives them more money
ISPs say they canât expand broadband unless govât gives them more money
Industry asks for handouts, arguing that broadband is essentialâlike a utility.
By Jon Brodkin
Aug 16 2018
<https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/08/isps-want-to-be-utilities-but-only-to-get-more-money-from-the-government/>
Broadband providers have spent years lobbying against utility-style regulations that protect consumers from high prices and bad service.
But now, broadband lobby groups are arguing that Internet service is similar to utilities such as electricity, gas distribution, roads, and water and sewer networks. In the providers' view, the essential nature of broadband doesn't require more regulation to protect consumers. Instead, they argue that broadband's utility-like status is reason for the government to give ISPs more money.
That's the argument made by trade groups USTelecom and NTCAâThe Rural Broadband Association. USTelecom represents telcos including AT&T, Verizon, and CenturyLink, while NTCA represents nearly 850 small ISPs.
"Like electricity, broadband is essential to every American," USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter and NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield wrote Monday in an op-ed for The Topeka Capital-Journal. "Yet US broadband infrastructure has been financed largely by the private sector without assurance that such costs can be recovered through increased consumer rates."
ISPs want benefits but not responsibilities
While ISPs want the benefits of being treated like utilitiesâsuch as pole attachment rights and access to public rights-of-wayâthey oppose traditional utility-style obligations such as regulated prices and deployment to all Americans.
The industry's main arguments against net neutrality and other common carrier regulations were that broadband shouldn't be treated as a utility and that the broadband market is too competitive to justify strict regulations. "Utility regulation over broadband can only inhibit incentives for network investment," AT&T warnedin November 2017.
Industry groups have also tried to stop cities and towns from building their own networks, saying that the government shouldn't compete against private companies. Telecom-friendly legislatures have passed about 20 state laws restricting the growth of municipal broadband.
Despite the industry's fight against municipal networks, Spalter and Bloomfield wrote that the "private-led investment model" only works well in "reasonably populous areas." In rural parts of America, "the private sector can't go it alone," they wrote.
To close the rural broadband gap, the US needs "solutions that unite the public and private sectors to finish the job of building a truly connected nation," Spalter and Bloomfield wrote. This public/private model is "without question... the only acceptable path forward just as it was in wiring rural America with electricity and building our nation's highways."
"Broadband providers need a committed partner to finish the job of connecting unserved communities. That partner should be all of us as Americansâin the form of our government," they wrote.
The op-ed did not explain why the FCC's repeal of net neutrality rules wasn't enough to spur expanded broadband investment, though broadband industry lobby groups previously claimed that the rules were holding back network expansions and upgrades. ISPs also promised more investment in exchange for a major tax break that was passed by Congress late last year.
Broadbandâs similarity to utilities
To make their point, USTelecom and NTCA commissioned a report titled, "Rural Broadband Economics: A Review of Rural Subsidies."
[snip]
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-------------------------------------------Subject: [Dewayne-Net] ISPs say they can't expand broadband unless gov't gives them more money
ISPs say they canât expand broadband unless govât gives them more money
Industry asks for handouts, arguing that broadband is essentialâlike a utility.
By Jon Brodkin
Aug 16 2018
<https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/08/isps-want-to-be-utilities-but-only-to-get-more-money-from-the-government/>
Broadband providers have spent years lobbying against utility-style regulations that protect consumers from high prices and bad service.
But now, broadband lobby groups are arguing that Internet service is similar to utilities such as electricity, gas distribution, roads, and water and sewer networks. In the providers' view, the essential nature of broadband doesn't require more regulation to protect consumers. Instead, they argue that broadband's utility-like status is reason for the government to give ISPs more money.
That's the argument made by trade groups USTelecom and NTCAâThe Rural Broadband Association. USTelecom represents telcos including AT&T, Verizon, and CenturyLink, while NTCA represents nearly 850 small ISPs.
"Like electricity, broadband is essential to every American," USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter and NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield wrote Monday in an op-ed for The Topeka Capital-Journal. "Yet US broadband infrastructure has been financed largely by the private sector without assurance that such costs can be recovered through increased consumer rates."
ISPs want benefits but not responsibilities
While ISPs want the benefits of being treated like utilitiesâsuch as pole attachment rights and access to public rights-of-wayâthey oppose traditional utility-style obligations such as regulated prices and deployment to all Americans.
The industry's main arguments against net neutrality and other common carrier regulations were that broadband shouldn't be treated as a utility and that the broadband market is too competitive to justify strict regulations. "Utility regulation over broadband can only inhibit incentives for network investment," AT&T warnedin November 2017.
Industry groups have also tried to stop cities and towns from building their own networks, saying that the government shouldn't compete against private companies. Telecom-friendly legislatures have passed about 20 state laws restricting the growth of municipal broadband.
Despite the industry's fight against municipal networks, Spalter and Bloomfield wrote that the "private-led investment model" only works well in "reasonably populous areas." In rural parts of America, "the private sector can't go it alone," they wrote.
To close the rural broadband gap, the US needs "solutions that unite the public and private sectors to finish the job of building a truly connected nation," Spalter and Bloomfield wrote. This public/private model is "without question... the only acceptable path forward just as it was in wiring rural America with electricity and building our nation's highways."
"Broadband providers need a committed partner to finish the job of connecting unserved communities. That partner should be all of us as Americansâin the form of our government," they wrote.
The op-ed did not explain why the FCC's repeal of net neutrality rules wasn't enough to spur expanded broadband investment, though broadband industry lobby groups previously claimed that the rules were holding back network expansions and upgrades. ISPs also promised more investment in exchange for a major tax break that was passed by Congress late last year.
Broadbandâs similarity to utilities
To make their point, USTelecom and NTCA commissioned a report titled, "Rural Broadband Economics: A Review of Rural Subsidies."
[snip]
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