Broadband Demand and Wireless

Notwithstanding the inconclusive status of the public policy debate on intervention in support of broadband Internet access, wireless broadband can play an important role in the overall adoption of broadband in the U. S. Results from a recent consumer survey of broadband demand attributes informs here a discussion of wireless broadband, including the key role of reliability, wireless as an element of government competition policy, spectrum policy reform, fostering of novel decentralized access services, the role of wireless in closing the digital divide, the use of mobility to expand applications’ user communities, and wireless broadband in public safety. I. THE BROADBAND POLICY DEBATE Broadband Internet access suffers from a multiplicity of definitions [1]. Usually, bit rate is taken as the defining characteristic with definitional rates ranging from 200 kbps to 100 Mbps. Alternatively, broadband is sometimes defined in terms of the applications it enables, or other characteristics than bit rate (such as “always on” connectivity or low latency). We will use the U. S. Federal Communication Commission’s definition of “high speed lines” – at least 200 kbps in at least one direction. This definition fits many actual and proposed cable modem, DSL, fixed wireless, and satellite Internet access solutions. Although exact capabilities vary by service provider and the type of service purchased, broadband Internet access is often used for web browsing with quick response times, transfer of crisp video images and CD quality audio files over the Internet, quick downloads of large files, playing real-time interactive games with people in different locations, and providing efficient access for others on the Internet to large audio, text and video stored on local PCs or other devices. A majority of Americans use the Internet; however, a smaller fraction is using broadband, on the order of 15% of households [2]. The U. S. public debate on broadband demand policy revolves around two main positions: (1) broadband demand is growing too slowly for the nation’s good (implying that intervention is in order) or (2) broadband demand is growing at a reasonable rate (no intervention is in order). Figure 1 shows the number of “high speed lines” from FCC data for various access technologies. Clearly, subscription has been growing, particularly for cable modem and DSL technologies. Fixed wireless and satellite have relatively low penetration. Figure 1. High Speed Lines (greater than 200 kbps in at least one direction) in the United States [3]. 0 2,000,000 4,000,000 6,000,000 8,000,000 10,000,000 12,000,000 14,000,000 2H99 1H00 2H00 1H01 2H01 Hi gh S pe ed L in es Total