There has been a lot of talk during the last year about putting together a new Telecom Act. It’s been twenty years since the Telecom Act of 1996 which created CLECs. But a lot has changed in twenty years and that Act is largely obsolete. Unfortunately it’s unlikely with political gridlock that we’ll get a new Act that fixes our real problems. But I asked myself what I would include in a new Telecom Act if I was allowed to write it. Here are some of the top changes I would make:
Fund Fiber Everywhere. There was recently a bill introduced in Congress to add $50M to the RUS for rural broadband grants. That makes such a tiny dent in the problem as to be embarrassing. If we believe as a country that broadband is essential for our economic future, then let’s do what other countries have done and start a federal program to build fiber everywhere, from rural America to inner cities. I could write a week’s worth of blogs about how this could be done, but it needs to be done.
Make Broadband Affordable to All. The Lifeline program that subsidizes $9.25 per month for broadband for low-income households has the right intentions. But the amount of subsidy is ridiculously low. If we believe that schoolkids ought to have broadband to succeed then let’s do this right and pony up and find a way to pay for it.
Tax Broadband. The continuing ban against taxing the Internet is stupid. It was put in place years ago to protect a fledgling new Internet industry. Let’s put a tax on landline and cellular broadband to pay for getting fiber everywhere and broadband to everybody.
Stop Subsidizing Non-Broadband. It should be impossible for the FCC to provide any funding or subsidies to broadband connections that don’t meet their own definition of what constitutes broadband speeds.
Fix Pole Issues. Pole issues have been a bane to competitors since the last Telecom Act required pole owners to allow access. Let’s create common-sense rules that don’t allow pole owners to hold new competitors hostage.
Break the Power of the Programmers. Most of what has been broken in the cable TV industry has been due to the immense power and greed of the programmers to set the price and conditions for their content. It’s time to put a halt to contracts for content that force cable providers to buy programming they don’t want. And it’s also time to consider requiring programmers to offer each network a la carte and not in big bundles.
Unleash Skinny Bundles. Existing cable rules put handcuffs on cable providers. Rules that require specific kinds of bundles such as basic and expanded basic means that a cable provider has a nearly impossible task of putting together offerings that customers really want to buy. Let’s scrap those rules and start fresh with customer choice as the driver behind the new rules.
Make Cable Rules Apply to Everybody. Any new cable rules need to apply to everybody that provides content – over wirelines or over the Internet. Anything less than this gives massive advantages to one side or the other. I would be fine if the best way to do this is to have almost no rules!
Reinstitute Limitations on Ownership of Media. Allowing a handful of companies to own all of the television and radio stations has put a huge dent in our free press and in local control of news stations and reporting. Let’s break up these conglomerates and start over.
I could easily add forty more items to this list, but these were the ones that first came to mind as I was writing. What would you add to a new Telecom Act?