TrackBacks (0) Comments (1)
If you watched the Superbowl this year, or happen to be a die hard Luke Wilson fan, you may have noticed the corporate flame war that has erupted in advertising between cell phone providers AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Both companies contend that their respective networks provide superior coverage. However, the issue at hand is the ability of these providers to boost their network capacity to handle the spread of smart phones.
Last year AT&T briefly halted sales of the iPhone in New York City due to rolling blackouts in service. Customers using the popular smart phone made up less than ten percent of local subscribers, yet were using a majority of the available network capacity to access the Internet.
AT&T and Verizon are faced with the daunting task of building competitive high speed Internet and telecommunications networks to meet the needs of the growing smart phone market. Many smart phones currently have the ability to tether, which allows other devices, such as laptops, to access the Internet through the phone. AT&T has shut off this feature in its smart phones because its network cannot handle the additional load. Customers may not tolerate restricted functionality for long when premium data plans can cost up to an additional $80 a month.
Verizon is in the midst of an $18 billion network upgrade, but this will only benefit 18 million home subscribers. For its part, AT&T has boosted spending on infrastructure development, but it is not enough to meet future demand. Both companies have scrambled to install newer and more advanced cell phone towers in big cities like New York and San Francisco, but this is only a temporary fix.
The reality is that the cost of upgrading the telecommunications networks that provide Internet, television, and cell phone service in the United States is too costly for any one company to do by itself.
Yet in the recently released National Broadband Plan, the Federal Communications Commission recommended to Congress that boosting competition between telecommunications providers will push the market to upgrade. So far the competition between AT&T and Verizon has produced a price war over data plans and cell service, but no progress on upgrading their respective networks for the long term.
Americans are increasingly conducting financial transactions and streaming high definition video using mobile services. Mobile productivity boosts the productivity of subscribers, and with greater network capacity, costs can be reduced drastically.
The Obama administration, Congress and the FCC should consider providing greater incentives and regulations to foster a comprehensive upgrade to the nation's broadband networks. In South Korea, consumers enjoy the fastest cell phone networks and Internet access in the world. Unlike in the United States, the telecommunications providers are state-owned.
The U.S. government may not be ready for a broadband society, but the consumer surely is.
This op-ed is part of a partnership between Neon Tommy and the Association of Public Diplomacy Scholars.
No comments:
Post a Comment