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Broadbrush
Broadband
The
Warner administration has articulated broad
goals for the deployment of broadband
across Virginia. But experience,
research and a stronger economy may mean more than
state policy.
Let's
get this straight in the beginning: Broad bandwidth,
also known as broadband, is not about the working
dimensions of the gazebo for summer concerts in the
park. It is about huge capacity, a minimum speed of
10 million bits per second of digitized information,
whether video, music or data, which heretofore has
been reserved for business executives or consumers
who could afford T1 lines, cable modems, DSL,
satellite or fixed wireless links. Broadband is
expanding steadily, but not fast enough, according
to many in industry and government, to boost the
technology economy and keep the United
States
on the
competitive edge.
The
analysis and hype suggest broadband could be the
second coming of the communications revolution,
presumably complete with saints and sinners. Various
studies have suggested that national savings from
collaborative commerce solutions could total
hundreds of billions of dollars in the years ahead.
Greater broadband deployment could boost information
technology and telecommunications sales by a hundred
billion dollars a year and create a million new
high-wage, high-skilled jobs. There also appear to
be clear benefits for e-government, homeland
security, defense, education technologies and
distance learning, e-commerce, telemedicine and
telework.
But
there are obstacles to accelerating a process
dependent on private sector investment given the
still sluggish economy. Discussions highlight
technological interoperability, policy-making
dominated by special interests, privacy and security
concerns or consumer yawns that not much is on.
Considering expanded telemedicine, for example,
immediately prompts concerns about health data
privacy, licensing professionals, insurance
reimbursements and other questions. And not many
understand the viability of 3G in 1710-1770 MHz and
2110-2170 MHz bands. In sum, broadband lacks a
simple value proposition.
Still,
Virginia's
strategic plan for technology ambitiously paints
broadband as a critical infrastructure in the
"One Virginia" picture of Governor Mark R.
Warner, though with broad brush strokes. Whether the
clarity, commitment and resources exist to boost
broadband across the state remains a huge question
for a General Assembly study and the Warner
administration review now underway.
Consider
first the broadband goal set out in the
"Commonwealth of Virginia Strategic Plan for
Technology" released by Secretary of Technology
George C. Newstrom several weeks ago: "100
percent of households and businesses that request
access in Virginia will be provided with the
opportunity to purchase high-speed, high-quality,
affordable broadband by January 2006."
Ambitious, indeed, for a state still looking to
supply 100 percent of households with running water.
At the same time, when the President's Council of
Advisors on Science and Technology wanted a
broadband demonstration in June, it linked up with
the intensive care unit at
Sentara
Hospital
in
Virginia
Beach
.
Consider
next the knots into which broadband is twisted at
government levels from the Federal Communications
Commission, the Office of Management and Budget, the
National Institutes of Standards and Technology and
the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration to the continued arm-wrestling of
regional Bell operating companies, cable franchises,
wireless and satellite interests. Competitors
neither seek, nor give any quarter in this supreme
battle of technological and communications
convergence.
Competitors
do, however, attempt in every way possible to enlist
the public sector in policy decisions or
partnerships that either can give or take away
temporary advantage. As FCC Chairman Michael Powell
often counsels, FCC rules are there for all to see,
but the exceptions granted represent true
policy-making.
The
Commonwealth, itself, already has created three
different public-private partnership programs with
mission differences that increasingly make little
sense. VirginiaLink, administered by Virginia's
Center for Innovative Technology, helps local
government units and private businesses purchase
advanced telecom services from commercial providers
at reduced rates. Net.work.Virginia, administered by
Virginia Tech, provides sophisticated telecom
services to state schools, colleges and
universities. COVANet, administered by the
Department of Information Technology, helps state
agencies and departments purchase broadband from
commercial providers.
Hence
the first strategic goal of Virginia's
plan: Consolidate responsibility for statewide
broadband deployment. A 2002 bill introduced by
Delegate
Jim
Scott, D-Fairfax, prompted the General Assembly
study, which may have a legislative recommendation
as early as the end of November. The Warner
administration review mirrors the objective of
developing a legislative proposal and includes
suggestions to develop comprehensive maps of current
broadband coverage, to conduct workshops to increase
broadband demand, to create incentives for broadband
providers and to build business cases for opening
current Commonwealth contracts to non-public
entities.
Bristol, Virginia,
of course, took the Commonwealth to court earlier
this year on that very point, whether it could open
its municipal broadband fiber network to private
subscribers otherwise not served. And it is not
clear exactly why the Commonwealth should be
functioning as a bundler of sophisticated telecom
services at all, given the excess capacity and
desperate cost-cutting underway in the private
sector now.
On
broadband, however, Virginia may have tree legs up
that state plans to date have not mentioned
directly. First, the Commonwealth has the only
governor in the United States with a sophisticated
understanding of all parts of the telecom business.
During his 2001 campaign, for example, Governor
Warner suggested that creative leasing of highway
rights-of-way to fiber optic providers might boost
state revenues at the same time it boosted broadband
capacity. Second, Virginia has a much higher than
average use of the Internet by people and
businesses. Northern Virginia businesses, in
particular, provide critical mass in information
technology and telecommunications hardware,
software, networks, applications, connections and
content. Third, Virginia Tech has the world-class
Center for Wireless Telecommunications with cutting-
edge research underway on systems, antenna, pricing,
digital signal processing and other matters. Where
broadband goes next is just as likely to emerge here
as anywhere else.
Policy
options for Virginia, however, remain somewhat
limited. The state and localities can minimize
barriers to rights-of-way access. Arlington County,
for example, has streamlined its permitting,
trenching and remediation practices. The
Commonwealth can consider targeted tax incentives
for deploying broadband in rural areas or allow
accelerated depreciation of broadband assets. Most
importantly, state government can continue to act as
a catalyst for expanding e-government, telework,
e-procurement and distance learning initiatives. To
be successfully and speedily deployed in Virginia or
anywhere else, broadband has to be seen as offering
a lot more than video on demand
Deep
down, broadband use is not really about WiFi or
spectrum allocation or complex policy questions that
guarantee special advantages to one industry sector.
Like the Internet, broadband demand really takes off
when tens of millions of people gain the capacity to
be producers, not just consumers of content. When
tens of millions began deciding what the Internet
was for, how it could be used, what was convenient
and what was valuable enough to pay for, the
Internet exploded. If the Commonwealth can get real
Virginians involved in determining "what's
on," not just referee among competing business
interests, broadband will be ready to grow as fast
as the private sector re-energized in 2003 can
invest.
--
Oct. 28, 2002
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