The U.S. needs to pass new laws to help increase the numbers of
residents subscribing to broadband, according to a report released
this week by a new technology policy think tank.
The U.S. government should pass new laws exempting broadband
service from local and some federal taxes for about five years, and
it should create tax incentives for companies to roll out new
broadband networks, said the report by the Information Technology
and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). The U.S. is currently ranked 12th
among member nations for broadband adoption, according to the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in a report
published Tuesday.
The nation is in danger of losing its economic edge and its IT
leadership, said Rob Atkinson, president of ITIF and author of the
report.
"The speed and ubiquity of broadband in [South] Korea has made
it a test-bed for the next generation of Internet-based services
and products, including online games, education and consumer
electronics," the ITIF report says. "Countries at the broadband
leading edge are more likely to experience more of these kinds of
benefits than laggards."
Countries with the highest broadband adoption and fastest speeds
will be breeding grounds for new innovation, Atkinson said.
Broadband is a major tool for improving the economy, with
high-speed Internet services leading to better health care,
education and worker productivity gains, he added.
In addition to other measures, the U.S. Congress should
streamline the cable television franchising requirements faced by
broadband providers looking to offer video over IP (Internet
Protocol), and it should refrain from imposing so-called build-out
requirements that would force new video providers to serve entire
cities, said Atkinson, formerly vice president of the Progressive
Policy Institute.
The House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee is
pushing forward legislation that would create a national franchise
for video providers, but among the debates is whether Congress
should require video providers to immediately offer services to
poor or sparsely populated areas.
While some countries with high adoption rates created large
programs to aid broadband rollout, the U.S. could take a few steps
that would be more politically feasible to the
Republican-controlled Congress, Atkinson said. His paper calls for
Congress to create a tax incentive for broadband providers by
allowing faster depreciation of broadband equipment. The paper also
says new broadband networks should also be exempt from federal
Universal Service Fund taxes, which help pay for telecom services
in rural and poor areas, as well as schools and libraries.
Several countries, including Japan, South Korea and France,
offer residents broadband services with upstream rates several
times faster than U.S. broadband, often at a fraction of the price
to the consumer, Atkinson said. "The reality is, in many of these
other countries, the reason they're getting 20-, 30- and
100-megabit speed is because the government said, 'This is a
national priority,'" he added.
ITIF launched in late March. While other think tanks include
technology policy as one of their missions, ITIF's focus will be on
accelerating broadband, e-commerce and IT adoption, Atkinson said.
ITIF was founded with "the idea that more [technology] is better,"
he said. Former members of Congress Jennifer Dunn, a Washington
state Republican, and Calvin Dooley, a California Democrat, are
co-chairmen of the think tank.
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