Google's Broadband Plan Has Everyone Talking
Even though much of Washington is shut down by a second major snow storm in a week, Google's announcement Wednesday that it plans to test an ultrafast broadband network, via demonstration projects in a small number of U.S. communities, has sparked a flurry of responses from various groups.
Some groups are encouraging other broadband operators to follow Google's lead in promising to open the network to multiple providers. "I hope this project will encourage other providers to recognize the value of opening up their networks, especially where doing so would bring broadband to unserved or underserved communities," Media Access Project President Andrew Schwartzman said in a statement. Computer and Communications Industry Association President Ed Black said Google's proposed network "demonstrates that investment in bringing the Internet to more people does not require compromising the Internet's historic commitment to freedom and openness." Google is a member of CCIA.
Saying his group "looks forward" to learning more about Google's project, National Cable and Telecommunications Association spokesman Brian Dietz noted that cable providers already have spent $161 billion over the past 13 years to build broadband infrastructure nationwide that reaches 92 percent of U.S. homes. "We will continue to invest billions more to continually improve the speed and performance of our networks and provide tens of millions of consumers with the best possible broadband experience," he added in a statement.
Many groups also are urging the FCC as part of the national broadband plan it is crafting to call for the build-out of faster, more advanced networks such as the one envisioned by Google. In Google's comments to the FCC on the broadband plan, the firm urged the FCC to launch ultra high-speed broadband test beds in several communities, Telecom and Media Counsel Richard Whitt said in a blog post Wednesday. "We thought it was important to back up our policy recommendation with concrete action, so now we've decided to build an experimental network of our own," he said.
Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott said in a news release that "the FCC should use these examples to set forward-looking goals for the future of broadband throughout the United States."
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski also issued a statement Wednesday in response to Google's project, saying the broadband plan his agency is crafting "will build upon such private-sector initiatives and will include recommendations for facilitating and accelerating greater investment in broadband, creating jobs and increasing America's global competitiveness."
Senate Commerce Communications, Technology and the Internet Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., said the project will have implications for how the national broadband plan is implemented. He added that Google's proposed broadband demonstration projects amount "to a nationwide competition for communities to step up and make the case for what a next generation network could do for them and then show America what is possible."
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