Broadband in U.S. jumps 34 percent, FCC says

This is really good news. Americans want broadband, are willing to pay for it, and the two principal providers are rolling it out. The consumer advocate quoted at the end of this story has the typical, and wrong, understanding of the reality of today's wireline broadband. Given the magnitude of the investments required to enable wide access, only the telcos and the cablecos have the wherewithal to do it. The FCC's policies are correct in this area.

Wireless technologies may offer even wider and cheaper access in the future, but for now the only realistic broadband Internet access available to consumers' homes is via cable or DSL. Fiber to the home is making rapid advances, but it will take a very long time to deploy fiber to the home.

"Broadband is becoming more widely used as consumers want faster access to the Internet for research, shopping, watching movies and downloading music. President Bush pledged during his 2004 re-election bid to ensure there would be universal access to broadband by 2007.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has made eliminating regulatory hurdles to achieve that goal his top priority since taking the reins of the agency earlier this year.

'The dramatic growth in broadband services depicted in this report proves that we are well on our way to accomplishing the president's goal of universal, affordable access to broadband by 2007,' Martin said in an opinion piece published on Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.

He said the FCC should ease some old regulations on telephone companies to put them on the same footing as cable operators, but added that the government would not relinquish its role of protecting consumers and aiding law enforcement.

'This means that we must treat all such providers in the same manner -- free of undue regulation that can stifle infrastructure investment,' he said.

But one consumer advocate criticized FCC policies as harming competition for broadband.

'Competitive Internet service providers are now history; the U.S. has a duopoly -- cable and telephone industry -- over broadband,' said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. 'Both cable and telephone have a long history of anti-competitive behavior.' "