Consultant desperately tries to preserve EU’s broadband status quo

[Commentary] The consulting firm Analysys Mason has compiled a report on European broadband policy that recommends continuing Europe’s historic policy framework rather than shifting to the more effective deregulatory approach practiced in the US, Canada, and Japan. The report will be dismissed by many because it was funded by the European Competitive Telecom Association, which mainly comprises the over-the-top Internet service providers who depend on wholesale access to incumbents’ DSL and fiber-to-the-home networks. While the policies Mason recommends are completely aligned with the interests of its client, this doesn’t mean that the policies are wrong in and of themselves.

Is European broadband really better and cheaper than US broadband (correcting for differences in density and distance, of course)? It’s certainly not faster; both Akamai and the discontinued Net Index by Ookla show that average download speeds are higher in the US than in the EU, and we have more 4G mobile broadband than Europe does. To make the case that Europe’s broadband is cheaper, we would need to show the impact of subsidies on the real costs borne by taxpayers and somehow measure the appropriateness of the state’s vision of broadband quality. If taxpayers in Europe are paying for a type of network they neither need nor want, all bets are off.

[Richard Bennett was the vice-chair of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association]