Can New York City fix what ails American broadband?

New York City unveiled a massive new Internet Master Plan in Jan that experts say is the largest and most aggressive local broadband improvement project in US history. If successful, the city's proposal could become a template for other towns and cities looking to improve broadband access and provide a leg up to regional economies. New York's proposal to fix its uncompetitive broadband problem is unique in part because it employs an "open access" model, which lets multiple Internet service providers come in and compete over the same network infrastructure. "Open-access infrastructure can be shared by multiple operators to lower costs, increase competition, minimize physical disruption to the city, and incentivize private-sector investments to reach and serve customers," said NYC Deputy CTO Joshua Breitbart.

Benton Senior Fellow Gigi Sohn said NYC's broadband plan was the most comprehensive and well-considered proposal she's seen. She said that while such open-access models have proven popular and successful in other countries, industry lobbying has prevented the idea from taking deeper root in the states. While Sohn was impressed with New York's plan, she warned that paper proposals are one thing, but successfully completing them under fierce, unrelenting opposition from incumbent telecom giants displeased by increased competition is something else entirely. "It's not enough just to write a report like this," Sohn said. "You have to find strong friends in the legislature who will stick with it until the end, get the governor and state [attorney general] behind you and make sure you have representatives both from industry and groups that will benefit from this plan working behind you."