AT&T Caps Off Broadband Plan Anniversary

[Commentary] AT&T commemorated the one-year anniversary of the National Broadband Plan in its own, unique way. It levied bandwidth caps on its customers. It then told its customers that it was a no-no to use data from their broadband data plan service to connect a Blackberry to a laptop. Not all data is created equal. Separate tethering plan required, it seems. That basically sums up the state of broadband in America. And AT&T bought T-Mobile, further shrinking competition in wireless broadband, further concentrating an already concentrated market. Now instead of the big four wireless companies, there are the bigger three.

Given that a year is a short time frame for this sort of thing, it’s still a legitimate exercise to try to evaluate the National Broadband Plan in a couple of frameworks. One is the narrow view – which proceedings have been started, which have been completed, which stand no chance of seeing the light of day, that sort of thing. By that standard, the FCC isn't exactly moving with blazing broadband speed. By the Benton Foundation’s reckoning, 34 percent of the 218 recommendations have yet to get started, 9.6 percent have been finished, and 40.4 percent are still in progress. By the FCC’s reckoning, they have completed about 80 percent of the plan, including issuing notices of inquiry and notices of proposed rulemaking. Whatever. Such bean-counting misses the picture. It really doesn't matter how many notices the FCC puts out, although it’s nice to see the Commission will apparently tackle the issue of agreements among mobile carriers for data – the kind that already exist for voice calls. What matters in the larger sense is whether the country has any prospects for improved broadband and whether consumers have any hope of getting to lower prices and more competition.