The Good News and the Bad News in the Stimulus News
[Source: Public Knowledge, by Art Brodsky; July 1, 2009]
The rules announced today for the $7.2 billion broadband stimulus package hit a lot of high notes. The guidelines put open and non-discriminatory Internet service front and center as a criteria for projects seeking funding to bring the Internet to unserved and underserved areas.
“Without a non-discrimination condition, network operators could give preferential treatment to affiliated services, or charge some application and content providers for “fast lanes” that would put others at a competitive disadvantage,” the document said. It couldn’t have been put any more clearly.
Not only is having an open and non-discriminatory network part of the program, but applicants will be graded on how open the network really is, getting more bonus points for “exceeding the minimum requirements for interconnection and nondiscrimination.” Applicants will also get extra points for offering faster speeds on their network, and for offering wholesale access. That’s using the incentive method, rather than simply ordering wholesale access.
The mapping portion is more of a disappointment. On the bright side, the plan for the broadband map calls for a lot more detail than has been reported previously, if the confidentiality portions of the program don’t ruin it.
On the other side, the special-interest legislation that started the whole mapping craze has fulfilled its ultimate purpose. Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.) legislation wasn’t called the “Connect the Nation Act” for nothing. This was the bill that mandated that only non-profits could receive mapping grants – because Connected Nation, a group that exists to protect information submitted by telephone and cable companies, is a non-profit and wrote the bill. And it’s wired deeply into many states.
Our cautionary tale goes into this in more detail of how Durbin’s bill became the gift that kept on giving. The challenge for the government now will be to rescue the data plan from the clutches of the people who want to game the system.
