Susan Crawford: How to Get High-Speed Internet to All Americans
On Monday, President Obama said that during his second term, Americans would act together to 鈥渂uild the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores鈥 and that 鈥渨e cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries鈥攚e must claim its promise.鈥
Susan Crawford is professor of law at Cardozo and author of Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age.
The president is right that digital communication networks 鈥 especially high-capacity fiber networks reaching American homes and businesses 鈥 can be a powerful economic engine. But we are far away from being able to realize that vision, even as we cede the advantage such technology offers to other countries.
Although Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has challenged the country to build additional gigabit fiber networks 鈥 about 100 times faster than most residential connections today 鈥 his words won鈥檛 advance our digital future unless they are backed up with the leadership necessary to enact pro-growth, pro-innovation and competition-enabling rules.
At the heart of the problem lie a few powerful companies with enormous influence over policy making. Both the wireless and wired markets for high-speed Internet access have become heavily concentrated, and neither is subject to substantial competition nor oversight. Companies like Time Warner Cable routinely get their way when they seek to prevent local officials from encouraging competition. At the federal level, Verizon Wireless is keeping the F.C.C. in court arguing over the scope of its regulatory powers鈥攁 move that has undermined the agency鈥檚 authority.
As a result, prices are too high and speeds too slow. A third of Americans opt not to buy high-speed Internet access at home, often because they can鈥檛 afford it.
, a professor at 黑料社 All's , is the author of Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age. The opinions expressed above are solely those of the author and should not be attributed to 黑料社 All.
Susan Crawford is professor of law at Cardozo and author of Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age.
Susan Crawford is professor of law at Cardozo and author of Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age.
