GigaOm March 18, 2010, 5:20PM EST

FCC's Broadband Plan: Mobile Broadband Will Save Us

As the plan's star, mobile broadband offers hope of a third broadband competitor in many areas and potential for future growth and innovation

The chart lays out the spectrum bands and the timing for the FCC airwave grab. Stacey Higginbotham

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The Federal Communications Commission issued its long-awaited National Broadband Plan this week, a 376-page document that makes clear the agency accepts the reality of the current wireline duopoly—and has decided to put the burden of competitive pressure on mobile broadband.

There are many consumer-friendly aspects of the plan, such as opening up set-top boxes (GigaOM Pro, subscription required) and creating an easy-to-understand label that shows people what their broadband connections are capable of.But the FCC has clearly decided against a plan that requires a new infrastructure buildout when the current infrastructure will suffice. If only the agency had moved to tackle this issue back in 2002, when the telecommunications providers were thinking about how their fiber rollouts were going to occur, and implemented policies that could have resulted in a shared nationwide fiber network.

When Life Gives You Lemons …

But now that Verizon is spending $19 billion to push fiber into the home for 80% of its footprint (although that push may be slowing) and cable providers have pushed fiber closer to the home in their networks and are deploying DOCSIS 3.0 upgrades, the FCC needs to work with what ISPs have in the field. So the bulk of the wireline reform coming out of the plan consists of regulatory tweaks to address predatory special access charges, intercarrier compensation rules, set rates for access to underground conduits and utility poles, and in-depth proposals for universal service fund reform.

Yes, the FCC is proposing that wireline networks will be faster if the 2020 goal of 100 Mbps speeds down and 50 Mbps speeds up are met, but that's a goal, not something I'm sure the FCC can and will enforce. Another goal is 1-gigabit connections to community centers and schools, which, depending on how it's implemented, could help drive faster networks as well. But again, those are 2020 goals. When it comes to ensuring competition between the duopoly in the short term, the FCC will rely on data. The plan proposes changes to both the type and amount of data the FCC collects and also asks the Bureau of Labor Statistics to collect information on how people use broadband.

The FCC says it will watch for price discrepancies and inequalities as newer networks are deployed and the types of services available to consumers diverge in speeds from wireless broadband's 1 Mbps downstream speeds to fiber's 100 Mbps downlink speeds. The commission doesn't lay out, however, how such inequalities—if they do emerge—will be addressed. Rather, mobile broadband is the star of the plan, both because it offers hope of a third broadband competitor in many areas and because of the potential for future growth and innovation of the U.S. economy.

Airwaves Are the Key

I'll write more in the coming weeks on the spectrum aspects of the plan. The details of how the FCC plans to go from having 50 MHz available for mobile broadband today to 500 MHz in 10 years will result in a pretty big legislative battle as the FCC tries to nab broadcaster spectrum and incumbents and tech firms position themselves to own large chunks of those valuable airwaves.

But the real benefit of mobile broadband as a competitive stick is threefold: It can cover the entire country relatively cheaply, existing operators are already moving to all-IP networks that the FCC sees as the future of its regulatory jurisdiction (the airwaves will always be part of the FCC oversight even if Internet applications and services are not), and the infrastructure is easily upgradable without tearing up streets and installing gear in people's homes.