NCTA: Google Fiber View of Broadband Competition is Too Narrow

NCTA-The Internet & Television Association is telling the Federal Communications Commission that it should include all makes and models of broadband in gauging competition in the communications marketplace, in comments on the FCC's framework for its next review of that marketplace. NCTA took aim at comments from Google and INCOMPAS that the FCC should only consider service with symmetrical upstream and downstream speeds or only service of at least 1 gig downstream as providing competitive service. NCTA said that was a transparent effort to game the competitive analysis by "excluding options that millions of consumers purchase." It said that limiting the competitive landscape to a minority of available services would be like assessing automotive competition by only looking at high-end sports cars. Google Fiber argues that competition can be inadequate because of a variety of factors including "asymmetric bandwidth, data caps, and opaque pricing that makes broadband unaffordable."