Broadband Plan Faces Hurdles

As the National Broadband Plan is released today, the more important aspects of the plan may have to do with how the Federal Communications Commission could soon propose to use its regulatory powers to generate more competition for the existing broadband networks run by big phone and cable companies.

Consumer groups have been pressing the agency to propose rules that would require companies to open up their networks to rivals. But the plan doesn't specifically call for broadband providers to share their networks under so-called open-access rules, a win for the telecommunications industry. "A lot of the hardest questions have been moved down the road," said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, a public-interest group. "How will we get those higher broadband speeds and how will we get lower prices?" The other critical issue for the broadband and Internet industries will be how the agency and Congress propose to auction off unused airwaves—electromagnetic real estate valued at billions of dollars.