National Broadband Plan Doesn't Address Downside Of Competition

[Commentary] The National Broadband Plan includes an assumption that competition is a good thing, that having multiple facilities-based competitors unencumbered by government regulation will create a healthy broadband marketplace. But there's a downside to unfettered, market-driven competition: a concentration of limited resources for deployment in markets where competition exists. And we often see that incumbent operators only upgrade to next-gen networks when competition forces their hand to do so. While some might see this as an example of a healthy market in action, the flip side to this is that by letting the market work on its own we're creating islands of super connectivity while the majority of the country is left without.