We Do Not Have the Internet We Deserve
from the a-better-future dept
Nothing that currently exists can compete with fiber. Nothing replicates the future growth fiber networks will deliver, simply because nothing that moves data has the inherent capacity of a fiber wire. It isn’t even close by any technical measurement. However, barely 30 percent of Americans have access to fiber infrastructure, despite the fact that 100 percent of Americans have become dependent on high-speed access during the pandemic.
In a few short years, more than one billion fiber-to-the-home gigabit Internet connections will have been deployed in Asia. That fiber infrastructure will be capable of reaching symmetrical ten gigabits, 100 gigabits, and well into the terabit era of broadband access in a cost-effective basis as applications and services continue to evolve and advance. Deployment at a large scale is possible, but the U.S. still lags far behind.
Here is how bad our high-speed access market is today: every big American ISP has stopped deploying fiber services at any serious scale. This leaves a vast majority of Americans stuck with inferior cable Internet service. When you factor in the monopoly power held by the ISPs—preventing Americans from switching to better service—it becomes a perfect storm. That storm broke with the pandemic, where we all suddenly found ourselves needing quick and reliable Internet access.
Only small private and local public providers are connecting folks to the future, but their efforts are stymied by incumbents and not sufficiently supported. That means most people can’t switch from cable when they opt to throttle uploads or are unable to deliver the speeds they’ve advertised if we all use the Internet at the same time. You still have landlords getting away with keeping fiber competitors out of apartment complexes in exchange for a kick back from companies like Comcast.
The remaining Americans who don’t even have access to cable are dependent on obsolete copper lines for communications held by companies like the now-bankrupt Frontier Communications and AT&T. In Frontier’s case, their overreliance on its slow Internet monopoly led to their downfall as they systemically avoided the necessary investments needed to transition to fiber leaving countless rural communities in dire straits. As for AT&T, they are trying to figure out how to cut people off the copper network and just give them cell phones to make more money with a less reliable connection. And the wireless industry spent precious years hyping 5G at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Congress only to now come to admit that 5G everywhere does not happen without dense fiber networks everywhere.
Now the good news: this is all fixable. If we change our telecom policies and how we invest in telecom infrastructure, fiber to the home (FTTH) is already economically feasible in a super-majority of communities if the right policies and government efforts are in place. A recent study by the Fiber Broadband Association found that FTTH is commercially feasible up to the 90th percentile of population density. For the remaining 10 percent, the Americans in the most rural of territories, we are seeing successful models led by the public sector such as rural cooperatives on long-term capital investments in FTTH.
For example, a rural cooperative in Missouri today can deliver gigabit service at $100 a month at a population density of 2.4 people per square mile. The demand is there but it is being suppressed by the slow Internet monopolists through bans on local governments building fiber and incumbent industry efforts to have the FCC hinder competition. If we break down the barriers that are suppressing the parties most ready to deploy fiber, 21st century infrastructure will come.
First, if the large private ISP model has failed (and it has), we need to start exploring our alternatives. One such alternative is simply having the government build the infrastructure and make it open to all comers. This “open access fiber” approach, fiber that is available on a shared infrastructure, is starting to take off. Utah’s “Utopia” network is leading the way, connecting more and more households in the area to an expanding open-access fiber network run by local cities. Residents within Utopia’s service area enjoy 11 private options for gigabit service, compared to whatever the majority of Americans have one or two high-speed services.
This type of approach to broadband infrastructure, where the government builds the wires and shares its capacity to broadband providers, holds tremendous promise. In essence, the government builds the roads and allows commerce to follow. One study predicts a structurally separated network deployment could connect rural homes to fiber without subsidies and through long term low-interest financing.
Other shared approaches are bearing fruit. In Alabama, the state legislature passed a law clarifying that electric utilities could leverage their easements and private rights-of-way to enable telecommunications services over their fiber assets. In response, Mississippi’s C Spire arranged an exclusivity agreement with Alabama Power in exchange for deploying fiber to the home to communities throughout the state through the utilities network. The exclusivity gave C Spire the confidence that their investments in the utility’s fiber network to make it broadband-ready could be recovered from newly connected customers, while Alabama Power was assured that C Spire would try to attract as many customers as possible to provide a stable and growing revenue base to the electric utility, resulting in lower rates. Joint ventures that leverage interdependent needs for fiber can help make more markets accessible because the demand is already there.
Lastly, the only way we are going to get everyone connected to 21st century ready access is the same way we did it with the roads, electricity, and water: the government needs to lead. Internet access needs to be part of its infrastructure policy, especially light of the private sector failing to deliver to all people.
Estimates are that nearly $100 billion is needed to deliver 100 percent coverage with FTTH in America, with the majority of that cost being associated with the most rural parts of America. That sounds like a lot, but here is the important thing to know about fiber: once you lay that line, you are done building broadband infrastructure for potentially 70 years or more. To put that in context, the publicly available commercial Internet hasn’t even existed for 70 years. All of the advancements in speed and capacity (that will far exceed satellite, cable, and wireless) will come from inexpensive hardware upgrades, not high cost labor and construction work. This is why countries like China are aggressively building fiber infrastructure at a rate nine times faster than the United States.
This reality has prompted Rep. James Clyburn to draft legislation to create an American universal fiber program. It has already passed the House, and now we must force the Senate to understand the breadth of this problem and simplicity of this solution. If we can get an electric line to everyone, we can get a fiber line there too.
The bill emphasizes open-access fiber networks that would replicate the success demonstrated by Utah’s local governments. Building these types of networks would shatter the nearly 15-year decline into the giant monopolies or duopolies that most Americans experience when trying to get high-speed Internet access. Instead, you could get Internet access from your local businesses, non-profits, and even your local schools and libraries.
The bill will also free up local governments and cooperatives to pursue community broadband. The removal of state laws advocated by the major national ISPs that ban local communities from building their own broadband access network is long overdue. The local public sector has proven to be an essential part of the solution to reach universal fiber as rural cooperatives, small cities, and townships are building fiber networks in areas long ago skipped by the private sector.
The bill also fixes a small-seeming, large-impact, and long-standing problem of Internet access in the United States by updating what we mean by broadband. Today’s federal definition of broadband was established in 2015 and stands at 25 megabits per second download and 3 megabits per second upload. This 25/3 standard makes it appear as if there are more broadband options than there truly are, hiding the monopoly. In other words, it is both useless and harmful. To fix this, the bill would establish that communities lacking 25/25 broadband are “unserved” and establish a minimum standard of 100/100 megabits per second for federally funded projects. These higher metrics would avoid wasting money on legacy networks that are unable to deliver relevant speeds and focus on future proof networks that have fiber at their core.
We have to fix our Internet, and soon.
The pandemic has not resulted in as much of an explosion of Internet usage as it has a bump in usage that is within normal parameters of what was coming—that is, pandemic usage is roughly in sync with projections for Internet usage in around 2022. The future, as they say, is now.
If your Internet access is failing you now, you have just been given a sneak peek of what 2022 looks like for your home. Broadband consumption has been on the rise as long as we’ve tracked it, and as the billion gigabit fiber connections are activated globally, the applications and services that use that capacity will come to market. If the United States government, the states, and the local governments do not actively tackle this infrastructure problem soon, we will just be unable to access the latest advancements. Not only that, but our economic competitiveness will decline as China continues to rise and the 21st century technology industries will begin to find their homes where the infrastructure is available. The next Silicon Valley may not be in America if we continue on this trajectory.
We will also start to see the creation of a new type of digital divide where Americans live with either 1st class or 2nd class Internet. Fibered networks are getting cheaper to operate yet are delivering larger amounts of data while legacy networks are quickly getting more expensive to maintain. That means low income neighborhoods and rural areas stuck on the legacy 20th century network are going to pay more for less, while high-income users connected to fiber will enjoy the benefits of lower prices. Efforts to subsidize access to the Internet for low income people will become more and more difficult on decaying lines, while free Internet zones will become more normalized in wealthy communities as the costs continue to decline on fiber.
None of this is set in stone. We have the market we choose and if we start making the right choices soon, we can solve these problems. But that takes everyone collectively demanding more from our policy makers and the industry and adopting a new approach.
Ernesto Falcon is Senior Legislative Counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation with a primary focus on intellectual property, open Internet issues, broadband access, and competition policy.
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Filed Under: broadband, competition, covid-19, digital divide, fiber, infrastructure, open internet
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Fiber vs copper vs wireless
Well-written piece, and I agree that GPON makes fiber an attractive offering in terms of low-latency networks. High bandwidth is a function of the dollars spent at the CPE, switching, and central locations.
Copper has a bad rap. Two wire circuits (US) that were originally designed for 2400 baud and never upgraded were eventually being used for "up to 56Kbps" modems, then used as radio waveguides. Terabit DSL exists, and again -- whether you have 768Kbps or 1Gbps or terabit speeds is a function of the dollars spent on the infrastructure.
Wireless has a bad rap because it's been run by WISPs hungry for the "oversell model" which means they sell N x the actual capacity they have, figuring peaks will average out. [There's another TechDirt thread on this already.]
Designing networks is tough. You can design for mean usage ("average"), peak usage ("top of the curve") or mode usage ("most often the level needed). In each case you have to design to some percentage of that level. Is it 100% of the peak or only 95%? Is it 100% of the mode or 90%? Can you build it with the ability to generate temporarily higher usages ("spikes", "bursts")?
And finally in case anyone is still reading, the more successful you are in doing this in the US, no matter the layer-1 technology, you get to set the rates others pay you to transmit their data or transmit your data. It's called "settlement" and it's where all the Big Boys get to argue about whether Netflix should pay Level 3 or the other way around... for data that YOU'VE already paid to receive or send.
If you don't have that "successful" (volume) a network you don't get to do settlement-free peering or even settlements... you have to purchase an "upstream connection" (transit).
In the end, FIBER is not the solution. COPPER is not the solution. WIFI is not the solution. If the problem is delivering high-bandwidth low-latency connections to residences... we need to have an industry that doesn't depend on screwing every consumer every month to do it.
Dane at Sonic has done this. Others can follow suit.
Ehud
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Me wireless
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Rural Electrification Model
In order to get fiber (buried - hello ice storms, tornado.) to everyone in low density farm country as an example, wouldn't the big ISPs just say thanks and then pay the something like a tax on fuel (interstate highway fuel/tire tax DoT) which gets passed to consumers?
The electricity program was based on the principle of necessary to have. Internet last mile is really in need of some kind policy change but I don't believe $100Bn lay fiber to all will be the magic solution. Policy is killing all solutions that use what we have now. How much dark fiber is in the ground?
Baltimore-Washington metroplex - TANSTAFL keeps everyone on cable/telecom wire and wireless. I can't get fiber to my house because poles are not shared and the buried fiber is sticking out of the ground 2 miles away - capped waiting for what. Policy change.
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It's way worse than you say
You wrote "100 percent of Americans have become dependent on high-speed access during the pandemic." But that's not true. Something like 30% of us, myself included, can't even get high speed Internet. Plenty of people would give their right arm for just a 4G connection. But otherwise, this article seems spot-on.
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Re: Me wireless
Lets see.
Allot of the infrastructure has been built. the main backbone is(supposedly) upgraded. The Last part is the last mile (or the LAst 200 square miles for a metro area).
If, in the last 40 years they have KEPT UP the building and upgrading of the system from the past..as in Underground, Pipe systems, as Hanging Fiber on the poles SUCKS.
They should be able to Just jump into the Holes and redo the whole system.
BUT, USA cable/phone, is LAZY. late 1990, the internet HIT hard, and the system was designed for...6% usage. At not time would more then 6% of the system was in use, and they DIDNT go beyond that point.(that was PTLD OR). SO if 10% of the population of the Area, grabbed a phone. IT WOULD FAIL after 6%. 2 million population, 200,000 using the phone at the same time.
I consider the Phone system a Virtual product. Beyond the basics of repair and operator assistance, everyone ELSE is an extra expense.
We are talking about The owner/CEO/Share holders/ ??? getting 2-10 times the total wages of those BELOW them. And probably MORE, as ATT CEO who Quit, after a 10% raise was over $35 million of the year.
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Questions
"Estimates are that nearly $100 billion is needed to deliver 100 percent coverage with FTTH in America, with the majority of that cost being associated with the most rural parts of America. That sounds like a lot, but here is the important thing to know about fiber: once you lay that line, you are done building broadband infrastructure for potentially 70 years or more."
I can see and know most of hte problems. Its a Bunch of rich folk that think this is easy. That it CAN/SHOULD be done. But the Corps are not the SAME ones that BUILT the old system. This is perpetual goods. and only Minor changes have EVER been done.
It was suggested LONG ago that electric and the installation of poles, be put away and everything be underground. BUT they all Bitched about it being TO HARD.(lots of ROCKS and mountains)
But as a perpetual goods, once it was up, there was very little to do. and can you guess how prices WENT UP.
Lets ask if it would be nice to have the gov. PAY companies to goto towns and BUILD them up with NEW tech. LET them do the hiring(REAL not over priced). HOW many places have been Cut short for ALLONNNG TIME?
I will bet this wont happen for 10+ years, if ever
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And unfortunately, as long as the big monopolist ISPs are in business, the US simply will not get the Internet it deserves. The big monopolist ISPs will exterminate anything and anyone that tries to tamper with their obscene hollow profits.
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Re:
Hollow profits, I think they could fill BAGS with it.
But there is a problem.
In that the USA gov. for some reason thinks it is NOT supposed to run a business.
It might even be a regulation, BUT, if the Gov. takes over ALL communications systems relying on the Backbone, and manages it. Then there is no competition to be running against.
And since for SOME reason I get the feeling Trump is a Nationalist, more then anything else. It would be a GREAT way to scare them INTO doing something.
remember they PAID for access to this, to the FCC. THey can revoke it.
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Nobody paid for access to whatever you're taking about. The FCC doesn't collect funds. I don't know who "THey" [sic] are that can revoke it[sic].
The government of the US is not running a business.
There is no "the backbone" and of the many that exist, the US "Gov." [sic] doesn't "manages it"[sic].
"I get the feeling Trump is a Nationalist" -- he said so. Are you high?
Maybe English just isn't your language... but I don't think you make any sense.
"THey can revoke it."
Yeah, sure THey [whatever] can revoke it [whatever].
Get some sleep.
E
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Re:
So, the corps using hte cellphone system, DIDNT pay to have access to the bandwidth? Which the FCC sells?
Then someone should tell the corps.
https://www.fcc.gov/auctions
US military used to have their OWN stores on bases until the Corps bitched about it being unfair, no taxes, no import fees.
And if, the Backbone to the Phone system isnt SUPPORTED by the gov. Who is keeping it up? Who are the cell/sat/cable/internet ISP's, Paying to have access to the interconnections BUILT THERE? They only own the last miles. They Might Maintain an area, but Probably Not taken the time to upgrade anything. And there are swaths of land out there that They wouldnt touch, because there ISNT anything out there.
Then there is the idea of a monopoly, and If the Gov. wishes to pursue it.
http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/backbone3.htm
And even if they have taken over tier 1 services, what are the odds, after the gov. has PAID for the hardware and tech to be upgraded, They have not dont it. Pretty high I would think and part of the reason they dont finish it.
And since the gov./WE paid them, dont that mean the gov. has their fingers into it. Give them credit here.
As a nationalist, he can Claim any service into being own by the gov. Isnt that what nationalization is? about 2-3 steps from being Socialist?
And I hope you get the idea that the Gov. has pushed every advancement in this country.
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amp blogger
amp blogger nice
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