Should Last Mile Broadband Connection to the Home be Universal? Should Government Build the Infrastructure to Make it Happen?

For more than a decade U.S. telecommunications policy has been guided by a vision of facilities-based competition in the last-mile. But considering the prohibitive economics of the last mile and the speeds that will be demanded for next-generation broadband service, should public policy play in role in making universal broadband Internet access an essential public amenity? Many believe that the 21st Century Broadband goal should be an optical fiber infrastructure, with virtually limitless communications capacity, that reaches every American home–much like the last mile of our nation’s energy, sewer, and water networks. Is the facilities-based approach of current telecommunications policy fundamentally misguided and unable to meet the demands of the 21st Century? Are current policies actually stifling telecommunications innovation in the last-mile instead of fostering it? Are we passing the baton of telecommunications leadership on to South Korea, Japan, and China? Reed Hundt will present a provocative telecommunications policy that fosters competition, innovation, and efficiency — without sacrificing the last mile. Joined in the debate will be two economists specializing in last-mile telecommunications policy: MIT Professor William H. Lehr and former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchgott-Roth. Come debate the most fundamental assumptions that have guided our telecommunications policy. Come debate the future!

Participants

• Reed Hundt
  Senior Advisor, McKinsey and Co. and former Chair, Federal Communications Commission
• Harold Furchtgott-Roth
  Former Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission; and President, Furchtgott-Roth Economic Enterprise
• William Lehr
  Associate Director, MIT's Internet & Telecoms Convergence Research Program