Americans Choose Wireless for Broadband

[Commentary] The main problem with Susan P. Crawford’s analysis is that her vision is almost entirely grounded in a rapidly disappearing reality: Internet access via wireline technologies.

The International Data Corporation projects that the number of wireless-only small and medium-sized businesses in the United States will grow by about 13 percent annually over the next five years. Wireless technologies, including smartphones and tablets, continue to replace landlines for millions of Americans, with this trend especially strong among the young. This points up two problems with Ms. Crawford’s call for a large federal program to spur wireline deployment. First, her solution is a technology that Americans are increasingly abandoning as unsuited to their (mobile) needs. It’s yesterday’s solution to today’s problem. More important, a wireline “Marshall Plan” would do absolutely nothing to address our most pressing broadband need — freeing more spectrum to handle wireless data growth. [Singer is a managing director of Navigant Economics, a consulting firm]