Do we need a new National Broadband Plan?

"For the first time since the beginning of the commercial Internet,” National Broadband Plan architect Blair Levin recently pointed out, “the United States does not have a national wireline provider with plans to build a better network than the currently best available network." That means that for most Americans, "five years from now, the best network they have is the network they have today."

It's true that there's still a lot of innovation in wireless, but "looking down the road, only wireline can provide the excessive bandwidth that provides the platform for creating the next generation of big bandwidth services," Levin added. "I hope next year, the president of the United States tells the chair of the FCC that his or her mission is to deliver a strategic bandwidth advantage for the country and a psychology of bandwidth abundance for consumers," Levin's talk concluded. Lots of wild cards here, such as who will be president next year, and consequently, who will chair the FCC. But Levin's commentary reflects a growing consensus that US broadband policy has stalled, and a restart will require more than the completion of one of the National Broadband Plan's last action items.