IP: Broadband access a concern for Farber (Farber's visit to Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas)

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>Broadband access a concern for Farber
>
>Outgoing FCC official believes industry owns much of the blame for lag in
>services
>
>03/03/2001
>
>By Vikas Bajaj / The Dallas Morning News
>
>RICHARDSON - Getting high-speed Internet access to homes will be the Federal
>Communications Commission's biggest challenge, the agency's outgoing chief
>technology officer said in a speech here Friday.
>
>Deployment of digital subscriber lines and cable modems has been painfully
>slow, Dr. David J. Farber told a conference room packed with
>telecommunications professionals.
>
>"For 10 years, people have promised broadband to the home, but it hasn't
>happened," said Dr. Farber, who is also a University of Pennsylvania
>professor of telecommunications systems.
>
>"How it gets fixed is one of Mike Powell's biggest problems," he said,
>referring to the new FCC chairman.
>
>Dr. Farber, a renowned and outspoken technology expert, said he was voicing
>his personal views and not speaking for the FCC.
>
>DSL and cable modem technologies have been around for years, but the
>industry only started deploying them in the last few years and only a tiny
>fraction of Americans have the services.
>
>Many customers have complained about the quality of the service and
>installation problems.
>
>Verizon Communications Inc., the nation's largest phone company, contends
>that the FCC has burdened phone companies with more regulation and oversight
>than rival cable firms, hampering DSL deployment.
>
>For example, phone companies must allow rivals to lease lines to sell
>competing services, but there is no such requirement on cable firms.
>
>"National regulation has adhered to outmoded rules designed for a bygone
>era," said Bill Kula, a Verizon spokesman. "Frankly, customers today have a
>broadband choice between DSL and cable, but regulation doesn't treat the two
>options equally."
>
>(The FCC placed open access requirements on AOL's merger with Time Warner.
>The nation's second-largest cable firm must allow rivals to sell high-speed
>access over its network.)
>
>Dr. Farber conceded that regulatory hurdles have made it more difficult for
>phone companies to bring DSL to more Americans, but he said the industry
>shoulders much of the blame.
>
>He also said the digital divide, a term referring to disparate availability
>of Internet and high-speed services to urban and rural and poor and well-off
>Americans, is a great threat to the country.
>
>"We have to bridge that gap or else we are going to have a very fragmented
>country and world," he said.
>
>Rural towns hundreds of miles from an on-ramp to the information
>superhighway will fall farther behind urban areas, he said, because
>businesses need broadband connections to be viable.
>
>Bridging the urban-rural chasm will be very difficult, because it's more
>expensive to provide high-speed service to sparsely populated areas.
>
>The government's role in funding rural access is a hotly debated topic in
>Washington and state capitals such as Austin.
>
>"It's a difficult problem," Dr. Farber said. "It's going to take an
>innovative approach."
>
>Mr. Kula contends that freeing phone companies from regulation will
>encourage investments that will whittle down the divide.
>
>"Progress has been made," he said, "but we need regulatory relief to make
>the digital divide look less like the Grand Canyon and more like the Palo
>Duro Canyon."
>
>Dr. Farber also talked about the challenges facing the wireless industry in
>developing and deploying next generation technology that aims to deliver
>high-speed data services to mobile phones and other handheld devices.
>
>Cellular companies will need new spectrum to launch so-called
>third-generation services, also known as 3G.
>
>In the United States, the spectrum the FCC wants wireless providers to use
>is occupied by broadcasters, who are unwilling to part with the frequency.
>
>In Europe, auctions have bid up the price of spectrum to astronomical
>levels, raising questions about operators' indebtedness and how much they
>will have to charge to make money, Dr. Farber said.
>
>Only Japan seems to have an unobstructed path to 3G services.
>
>
>
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