Compiling Headlines we often notice a strange balance between government efforts to both improve and censor communications. This week offers an example of this stark contrast.
On January 25, President Barack Obama delivered his 2011 State of the Union address. The eyebrows of communications policy watchers raised when the President devoted a solid portion of his speech to improving the state on broadband -- and especially wireless broadband -- in the US. To move toward connecting every American, including rural communities, to the digital age, the President launched a National Wireless Initiative to provide 98 percent of Americans access to high-speed Internet. This initiative, the Administration said, will enable businesses to grow faster, students to learn more, and public safety officials to access state-of-the-art, secure, nationwide, and interoperable mobile communications. (more on this below) The initiative is meant to foster the conditions for the next generations of wireless technology, nearly doubling the amount of wireless spectrum available for mobile broadband (through incentive auctions and other mechanisms to ensure spectrum is used more efficiently) and providing critical support for research and development in wireless innovation.
Much of the President's address focused on the US's international, economic competitiveness and it is helpful to put in context the state of broadband in the US vs the rest of the world. On January 24, Akamai released its quarterly State of the Internet report which provides Internet statistics on areas such as broadband adoption and mobile connectivity. According to Akamai, the US and China account for 38% of the Internet addresses in the world.
But China’s Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) released data the same day showing that the nation of 1.3 billion now has 457 million broadband users, more than the U.S., Mexico and Canada combined. Broadband penetration in China is 98 percent, which suggests that if folks have wired access they are connected, unlike in the US where penetration rates are closer to 80 percent and even more dismal in certain states. The CNNIC reports that there are 303 million mobile web users in China, up 69.3 million from the same period in 2009. Mobile internet users accounted for 66.2 percent of total internet users, up from 60.8 percent at the end of 2009. The number of rural internet users reached 125 million, or 27.3 percent of total users, an increase of 16.9 percent. The Chinese are spending billions to build out better mobile and wireline broadband, concerning some about the US continuing to push out faster networks and drive more citizens online so we can stay competitive.
In terms of overall average broadband speeds by country, Akamai reports that the United States lags behind eight others. South Korea (14Mbps), Hong Kong (9.2Mbps), Japan (8.5Mbps), Romania (7.0Mbps), the Netherlands (6.3Mbps). The United States is tied for ninth place with such countries as Taiwan and Denmark with an average speed of 5.0Mbps. That's well above the global average of 1.9Mbps. The 11 cities with the fastest average broadband speeds are all in South Korea with speeds ranging from 18.3Mbps on average to 13.9Mbps on average. Kanagawa, Japan appears at No. 12 at 13.3Mbps. From there, it's all Japanese and South Korean cities and regions until the 46th slot, when Hong Kong shows up with an average speed of 8.9Mbps. A handful of Romanian, French, German, Dutch, and Norwegian cities appear on the top 100 list, above all but one American city: San Jose (CA)
The Federal Communications Commission took some action to help the spread of wireless broadband on January 26 by allowing satellite broadband start-up LightSquared to lease its airwaves for traditional mobile phones. The FCC decision allows LightSquared to proceed with its plans to build a high-speed Internet network from satellite feeds. The service is aimed at companies that may want to offer mobile devices without partnering with major carriers. The plan could introduce more competition into the market for high-speed wireless Internet services.
As noted above, the National Wireless Initiative is also intended to help meet the needs of public safety. For public safety officials, high-speed, mobile broadband can mean the difference between success and failure, or even life and death, as such technologies can allow emergency workers to access building designs at the scene of an accident and police officers to send pictures to one another in real-time. The National Broadband Plan recognizes that the US needs a nationwide public safety broadband wireless network that allows first responders nationwide to communicate with one another at all times and without delay. There is, however, an ongoing debate on how to allocate the spectrum needed for this network. The FCC, in the National Broadband Plan, envisioned an auction of 10 megahertz Upper 700 MHz D Block for commercial use that is technically compatible with public safety broadband services. Some Members of Commerce, notably Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) favor a straight allocation of the spectrum for use for a nationwide, interoperable, wireless broadband network for public safety. On Jan 27, the Obama Administration made it clear that it will press Congress to allocate instead of auction the spectrum.
Elsewhere in the world, there was news about preventing Internet communications than encoraging it. The revolts in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen are driven by deep dissatisfaction with authoritarian regimes, but Internet technology has played a crucial role as a 21st-century weapon for democracy movements, experts say. Inspired by the recent overthrow of the Zine El Abidine Ben Ali dictatorship in Tunisia, citizen activists on Jan 27 escalated their protests in Egypt and Yemen, denouncing their respective governments. And social media played the dual role of a virtual town square where protest leaders rally the masses and counter government disinformation. Services such as Twitter and Facebook are "playing an increasingly large role in almost any mass protest around the world," said John Palfrey, a law professor at Harvard University who studies limits on Internet expression. "We will see more of this." The demonstrations in Egypt, where the government completely shut down the Internet Jan 27, "were started primarily by the April 6 Movement, which was basically a Facebook campaign that started in 2008 and called for protests about workers' rights," said Lina Khatib, a Stanford University expert on Arab reform. During the latest unrest, Twitter became an instant information tool, she said: "People were spreading the news on Twitter. They would alert people where demonstrators were gathering." US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Egypt to unblock social networking sites that have been used to organize protests, such as those operated by Facebook and Twitter. By urging Egypt’s government “not to prevent peaceful protests or block communications, including on social media,” Sec Clinton renewed her call for freedom of expression and assembly online, and fueled debate over how to promote those goals without undermining other US interests. Clinton’s defense of social networking is “a very delicate balancing act,” because of the longstanding US relationship with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said Ethan Zuckerman, a senior researcher at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. “At the same time, we’re starting to see evidence of an anti-authoritarian revolution in the region, and she doesn't want to be on the wrong side of that either. The safe stance is to be pro-free speech,” he said.