Robert Reich Gets Broadband Wrong

[Commentary] Robert Reich's new book "Saving Capitalism" reads like the last message in a game of telephone on the topic of broadband policy. He starts with distorted perceptions of the US broadband market — the endnotes confirm the role of Harvard professor Susan Crawford, who stridently opposes for-profit broadband, in Reich's thinking — and then twists them even more to promote his campaign for a Bernie Sanders-esque "democratic socialism."

Let's start with broadband speed and prices. Crawford argued in "Captive Audience" — a tract advocating government-owned broadband networks — that US speeds ranked only the 22nd-fastest in the world, and that our prices were among the highest. We were actually in the top 10 for speed, and in fact our lower-end services were among the world's most affordable. But when Reich takes his turn in the game of telephone, he goes even further, lamenting that "the United States ha[s] some of the highest broadband prices among advanced nations, and the slowest speeds." This simply isn't true.

[Doug Brake is a telecommunications policy analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation]