Former FCC chair Michael Powell really, really, really wants to believe that there’s viable competition in the broadband market, but he seems to have a history of using tiny experiments (that may go nowhere) as if they prove that there’s real competition. You may recall that when he was in charge of the FCC he declared broadband-over-powerlines “the great broadband hope” despite years and years of failed trials. Following his pronouncements on how BPL would present a viable “third” entrant into the competitive space, the prospects for BPL have continued to dwindle.
Now he’s claiming that Google’s latest decision to offer high speed broadband in very limited trials, shows that the market is generating competition just fine without unnecessary interference from the government via any sort of broadband stimulus plan.
Of course, there are a few problems with this. First, Google has only announced stuff, it hasn’t done anything yet, and even if it does, it appears the trials will be quite limited. But the bigger issue is this myth that the current market is this free and open market unencumbered by bad gov’t regulation. The history of the broadband market is the history of government’s subsidizing and favoring large incumbent telcos. The idea that suddenly everyone wants to “protect the free market” for internet access, when the market has never been a free market is pretty silly. What they mean is actually to protect the market for incumbents. Unless, of course, the incumbents are willing to pay back all the subsidies and preferential treatment they’ve received from the government over the years?
On the whole, I do agree with Powell’s position that we should be careful how we implement any national broadband plan, and that the focus should be on more competition — but I wouldn’t take Google’s announcement alone to be any sort of “evidence” of a free market in internet access.
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