The Ultimate Pipe Dream

Wouldn't it be great if everyone had unlimited bandwidth to every home, business and farm, every smart phone, tablet, camera or machine in this country; enough bandwidth that everyone could download or upload as much content as they could watch, listen to or read.  After all, isn't that the idealistic goal of an Open Internet?  Can you imagine the opportunity and innovation which could happen, if everyone had this ability?  The Internet has turned into a wealth of information unlike anything our world has ever seen.  The opportunities are boundless, or are they?

Is this just a pipe dream for the United States?  How about Nigeria, Tibet, Ecuador, Thailand and all other countries?  What barriers stand in our way to achieve this goal?  The first thing that comes to mind is politics and corporate domination of today’s political landscape.  Can you imagine a time when the people elected to office, went to their nations’ capital intent on serving their constituents. Imagine if they could actually perform their public service duties without undue influence from party leaders and corporate lobbyists? I can’t think of a time in my lifetime.  Unfortunately, this ability never existed, nor will it.  Therefore, it’s definitely a pipe dream, but oh, wouldn't it be great.

I grew up on a rural Indiana farm and operated the farm with my father for nearly 20 years.  Although we sold the farm some 10 years ago, I still watch the agriculture industry.  In the last 10 years, land, fertilizer, chemicals, seed, fuel and equipment costs have tripled.  Why you ask?  Consolidations eliminated competition.  The resulting large corporations raised prices at alarmingly fast paces and used profits to lobby Congress, insuring future legislation sides with their best interests in mind. 

Agriculture is similar to many other industries, I chose to use agriculture as an example,  because of my experience.  Is this evolution good?  In many ways it is.  Farms have become larger, gained many economies of scale and adopted high levels of technology.  These factors have greatly improved efficiency and production levels.  But gone are many family farms, like my family’s farm. They were lost in this rapid evolution.

I was an early adopter of technology.  I probably had the first computer (IBM-AT); first satellite market delivery service (Dataline); first PDA (Apple Newton), and the first GPS enabled combine in my county.  I even had the first Broadband connection to my house and farm office, which I installed in 2000; three years after I started a Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) business in 1997.  That’s right; I was both the customer and provider of my Broadband service.  Why do I tell you this?  I was an entrepreneur, a person understood the opportunities the Internet provided and even more so, the power of Broadband.  I’m not unlike many other entrepreneurs around the globe, who wouldn't take “no Broadband available” for an answer.  We recognized our communities needed Broadband, even if the large dominant phone and cable companies wouldn't provide it. So, we invested our own time and money to build it ourselves.

As a founding board member of the Wireless Internet Service Provider Association (WISPA) and was Executive Director until my tenure ended last December,  I know the industry well.  It's an industry of entrepreneurs, innovators and caring members of the communities they serve.  It’s an industry where the sharing of information is the norm, regardless of competition.  WISPA isn't just a trade association, it’s a vibrant community.  It’s a national community of operators, manufacturers, distributors, consultants and many other segments of the industry, who work together each day. They seek and share better ways to provide Broadband service.  It’s their mission to provide the best possible Broadband and customer service they possibly can to their clients.  In my mind, Wisps are America’s Broadband Heroes.  They take Broadband where it has never gone before, yet Wisps often ignored by many inside the beltway.

Many Wisps are now deploying fiber in their communities.  Combining fiber and wireless technologies, they are building efficient and affordable hybrid networks.  They understand the technologies and they know when to use each method to economically advance the bandwidth capabilities in their service areas.  

Where there is a Wisp, there is a way!  Oh, did I forget to say, Wisps are building infrastructure without hardly a dime of government subsidies.  The Wisp industry has recently been noticed and because of TitleII regulations, will soon become Common Carriers, regulated by the FCC. Your guess is as good as mine on the final outcome of these monumental new requirements and added responsibilities.

I have also witnessed the same consolidation happen to telecommunications, which happened in agriculture. Our government turned a blind eye to large mergers and allowed companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast to get larger and larger.  Why not?  They were funding politicians’ campaigns, passing out bribes, free vacations, etc.  In return, the politicians granted large subsidies and sponsored legislation; often written by corporate telecom lawyers.  Much of this legislation benefited these large companies and worked to eliminate competition.  The more corporate promises were made, the more funding was funneled their direction. Profits soared.  Why build fiber to every home, when they could buy spectrum with this money; which led to our virtual duopoly in the cellular industry today.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my mobile service and can’t imagine life without it today.  However, competition has all but been eliminated, causing prices to soar.  Spectrum auctions have become a joke.  Nearly all spectrum auction competition has been eliminated by seemingly unlimited pocketbooks of Verizon, AT&T and now Dish. It seems are few limits on how much spectrum the large companies can buy. There is no “use it or lose it” regulations and little incentive to strive for efficient use of the spectrum they purchase. Is this our future?  I hope not!  Spectrum is a finite public resource and should not be allowed to be warehoused by large private telecom companies.

I've watched the recent Net Neutrality debate with great interest.  I have observed the hatred the American public has for large cable and phone companies.  I've watched public interest groups sway the public to support Net Neutrality and stake claim to 4 million comments.  The reality is many commenters did not understand the difference between Net Neutrality and the final TitleII overreaching government regulatory rules used to achieve an Open Internet.  I  personally support No Blocking, No Throttling, No Paid Prioritization and the transparency rules.  I believe most ISPs do also. It's my belief these four principles are the core of Net Neutrality.  However, I do believe these core principals of Net Neutrality could have been accomplished without imposing TitleII regulation on the entire ISP industry.

I disagree with the FCC’s final decision to use TitleII regulations to manage the Internet.  I believe forbearance promises of many sections in the regulations create great uncertainty for the ISP industry and future investment.  I believe the legal costs for ISPs and the American taxpayers will be outrageous.  Smaller ISPs, which often provide the only Broadband access to a great part of rural America, will most likely see risks outweighing rewards in the low margin business of rural Broadband. I also believe the regulatory compliance burdens will also cause severe economic impact for smaller providers. Who is going to provide Broadband to rural Americans if small providers exit the industry?

I was particularly dismayed by the Commission’s omission and dismissal of the IRFA (Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis) requirement.  An IRFA is designed to study the economic impact on small entities by the policies and rules proposed in the Notice.  When it was apparent the IRFA requirement was not included in the notice, at least three trade associations representing small ISPs, wrote a letter to Chairman Wheeler to request a hearing to examine the significant economic impact on small Broadband providers.  As far as I know, the Chairman did not respond to the request and no such hearing was held. The sheer fact the IRFA requirement was ignored predicts this agency's lack of concern and support for small Broadband providers.

So now we have a situation at hand.  An FCC order has been passed, surely to be challenged in court.  This will cost the American taxpayers millions of dollars and years to resolve.  More importantly, it will inject further uncertainty into the ISP industry.  Imagine how much Broadband infrastructure could be built with this money in the meantime.   Why was it so important for the FCC to ram ahead with regulations which should have been created by Congress in the first place?  Was it because of the current Congressional standoff between political parties?  Was it because content providers used their lobbying clout to sway public and political opinions?  Whatever the reason, the American consumers and small ISP companies will be the victims of this premature action by the FCC.

In conclusion, why did I title this post, The Ultimate Pipe Dream?  Well, because although politicians and regulators agree the need for ubiquitous fast unlimited Broadband for all Americans is essential. They've clumsily slowed this process by imposing a strict TitleII regulatory regime on the very industry that builds the infrastructure. They've created uncertainty in the marketplace.  They've also slowed innovation by inserting government oversight in the process.  To achieve the Ultimate Pipe Dream, the government needs to create fair opportunities to build fast interstate data highways.  They need to remove barriers, instead of creating more. ISPs should get incentives to build the best Internet system in the world, instead of being water-boarded with regulations.  Let’s remove “Pipe” from the title and achieve “The Ultimate Dream” together, as quickly as possible.