Ms.
Josephine Scarlett
Office
of the Chief Counsel
National
Telecommunications and Information Administration
Room
4713 HCHB
1401
Constitution Ave., NW
Washington,
DC20230
Re:
Request for Comments on Deployment of Broadband Networks and Advanced Telecommunications;
Docket No. 011109273-1273-01
Dear
Ms. Scarlett:
This
letter is submitted in response to the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration’s Notice inviting comment concerning broadband
deployment in the United States.[1]
In the Notice, NTIA solicits comments on the “supply and demand for broadband
services” and “the technical, economic, or regulatory barriers to broadband
deployment.”
The
Progress & Freedom Foundation (“PFF” or “Foundation”) is a private,
non-profit, non-partisan research institution which was established in
1993 to study the digital revolution and its implications for public policy.As
befits an institution devoted to studying the digital revolution, the foundation
has dedicated a substantial amount of its resources to examining issues
which relate to broadband deployment. This is because the foundation’s
policy experts have long been in agreement with FCC Chairman Michael Powell’s
recent statement that: “It is widely believed that ubiquitous broadband
deployment will bring valuable new services to consumers, stimulate economic
activity, improve national productivity, and advance many other worthy
objectives—such as improving education, and advancing economic opportunity
for more Americans.”[2]
In
light of our recognition of the importance of the subject, we filed
extensive initial comments on September 24, 2001, in the FCC’s most
recent Section 706 proceeding investigating broadband deployment, and we
also filed reply comments on October 5, 2001.[3]
In those comments and reply comments, we addressed almost all of the issues
raised in NTIA’s Notice. Rather than repeating all that information here,
we are attaching the initial and reply comments as Appendices A and B respectively
and ask that those comments be included in NTIA’s record.
Our views, as explained fully in the attached FCC comments, may be summarized succinctly:
·The
country will benefit economically and socially, and the national security
will be strengthened, from a more
rapid pace of broadband deployment.
We welcome NTIA’s inquiry if it is one that leads — hopefully, expeditiously — to the formulation of Administration policy supportive of a broadband regime that is uniformly deregulatory. That Administration support should come in the form of urging the FCC to move in a decidedly deregulatory direction, as well as voicing support for legislation that would specifically eliminate regulatory requirements that curtail the incentives of the incumbent telephone companies from building out new broadband facilities. For example, now that the FCC has initiated still another proceeding to examine the regulatory treatment of the incumbent carriers’ broadband services, the Administration should formally urge the Commission to adopt a deregulatory broadband regime and to do so expeditiously, rather than allowing the new proceeding to become merely another opportunity for delaying reform.[5]
Indeed, Jeffrey A. Eisenach, PFF’s President, joined with seven other nationally-prominent economists in a December 4, 2001 letter to four high-level Administration officials with responsibility for economic policymaking, including Secretary of Commerce Evans, urging that the Administration focus on broadband policy as a matter of high importance.We are attaching a copy of that letter as Appendix C.[6] In closing here, it is appropriate to summarize the points explicated more fully in that attached letter:
·Growth of the IT sector was crucial to the economic expansion of the late 1990s, and its decline is a key element of the current slowdown.
·Current Federal Communications Commission rules create substantial disincentives to needed investment in the telecommunications infrastructure.
·Upgrades to the telecommunications infrastructure are important to the IT sector because they will allow it to create and market “next generation” products and services that can only be made available over broadband connections.
·The Administration should aggressively promote steps to eliminate disincentives to investment by accelerating telecom deregulation as rapidly as possible.
We very much appreciate the opportunities to submit these views and attached materials for the record. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey
A. EisenachRandolph
J. May
PresidentSenior
Fellow and
Director
of Communications
Policy
Studies