States Need to Focus on the Broadband Internet Ecosystem in Enforcement Matters

[Commentary] During the week of Nov 9, three of the leading US broadband Internet service providers (ISPs) -- Verizon, Cablevision Systems and Time Warner Cable -- will be filing responsive reports with New York State’s attorney general’s office. That office, under the leadership of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, launched a recent probe regarding whether these ISPs did not deliver the actual broadband Internet speeds that had been advertised to consumers. The ISP responses, which are expected to vigorously contradict the allegations, will present items that have specifically been requested for government review, such as proof of disclosures made to customers as well as any testing around Internet speeds.

The New York State Attorney General’s inquiry may be looking too narrowly at only a single element of one part of a complex ecosystem -- speed of delivery (which itself may be affected by such individualized factors as the quality and placement of an in-home router, along with the size of a particular residential dwelling unit). If other states frame their inquires in similar ways, they may repeat the same conceptual mistake of equating broadband Internet speed with broadband Internet value. Instead, the better approach would be to begin any future investigation with the broadband Internet ecosystem as the central principle upon which all current and future policy discussions need to account for; anything less cannot help but be piecemeal. Without this essential holistic view, state law enforcement officials may be able to achieve quick fixes, but they also may create negative unintended consequences in the larger broadband Internet ecosystem at play.

[Stuart N. Brotman teaches at Harvard Law School and is the author of Net Vitality: Identifying the Top-Tier Global Broadband Internet Ecosystem Leaders]