Principles for a Successful IP Transition: Ubiquity

Last month, the Benton Foundation released The New Network Compact: Making the IP Transition Work for Vulnerable Communities. The report, written by Ted Gotsch, includes 10 interrelated principles to help policymakers guide the transition from traditional telephone service to emerging broadband networks. In the coming days, we’ll highlight each of the 10 principles. Today we look at Ubiquity. First and foremost, people must have affordable access to high-speed IP networks to make the transition successful. Given the FCC’s statutory mandates and its established priorities, the agency should closely analyze how the IP transition will impact the digital divide. By performing this analysis, the FCC will acquire the information it needs to ensure that its IP transition policies are consistent with its determination that ubiquitous access to broadband is one of the Commission’s most critical policy objectives. Specifically, the FCC should craft any new rules and policies in a manner that ensures, to the extent possible, that the transition will be instrumental in closing the digital divide. The FCC should also consider the importance of focusing on broadband adoption, education and training when crafting IP transition trials and policies. The importance of adoption, barriers to adoption, and means of achieving adoption, especially among minority, multilingual and vulnerable populations, should be at the top of the agenda for negotiating a successful transition. The FCC should aim at enabling underserved populations – in particular, rural and low-income households – to acquire and make effective use of broadband service.