The Broadband Plan and the Power of Data Driven Thinking

[Commentary] The fourth and final column in a debate about the role of competition, broadband speeds and the goals of the National Broadband Plan between Blair Levin, the plan’s author and Craig Settles, a broadband consultant.

The National Broadband Plan team was trying to solve many problems (as directed by Congress) but the first problem, as explicitly stated by Congress, was ensuring “that all people of the United States have access to broadband capability.” To do that, one has to define what level of broadband capability government should be willing to subsidize, how much it will cost and how the government will pay for it. So it’s difficult for me to take seriously any criticism of the plan that doesn't provide concrete answers to those questions. Settles doesn't provide those answers, though in his latest discourse, he appears to be more willing to accept the 4 Mbps speed target for the subsidy for residential, as long as the plan allows for that goal to be reconsidered, which it does. If I'm reading Settles right, then perhaps on that issue, we don't disagree, though if so, it undercuts his earlier attacks on the plan. If I'm reading him wrong, then once he answers those three questions we can have a far more productive dialogue.