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Broadband access for all in the US
Ericsson will lead as a wireless and wireline infrastructure provider by providing broadband across the US and actively engaging with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the creation of a national broadband plan.
July 13, 2009
The US Congress has given the FCC the task of coming up with a rollout plan for broadband by next February and encourage its wide-scale uptake across the country.
So far, 500 parties interested in promoting broadband have filed their comments with the FCC, resulting in 5,000 pages of publicly accessible documents.
Ericsson says it wants to see even-handed network oversight, meaning that carriers should be able to manage their networks in the way they see fit, rather than being forced to comply with mandated rules set forth by regulators.
Barbara Baffer, head of Public Affairs & Regulations at Ericsson in the US says: "In addition, what I see becoming a crucial factor is the evolution of spectrum policy and the way it includes future technologies such as LTE. There is a definite need for more spectrum and broader swathes of spectrum to enable both high-speed and seamless broadband."
There is currently a great deal of interest in the 700 MHz band around the world. It was auctioned off in the US in 2008 with great success and many European and Asian countries are now considering adopting it.
Baffer also highlights the need for economies of scale to allow end users to access broadband at affordable rates and vendors to deploy networks efficiently.
"We need to look at what each region is doing on each band and make sure we harmonize as much as possible to achieve economies of scale for the benefit of end users, operators and infrastructure providers," she says. "International harmonization with regards to spectrum would only take the benefits further."
Jared Carlson, Director of Government & Industry Affairs at Ericsson in the US, who has been working closely on Ericsson's report to the FCC, says: "In our report we emphasize the term 'mobility.' By mobility, we don't necessarily mean just wireless technologies, but the ability for an end user to have ready access to any application at any time."
Carlson says Ericsson wanted to highlight not just broadband itself but the applications and uses it enables. "You can roll out pipes but unless you have real content, applications and services, it doesn't have that much meaning. To illustrate the benefits of universal broadband, we borrowed liberally from Ericsson's Communicating Worlds 2020 material, and highlighted some of the 'wow' technologies that Ericsson foresees playing a role in our lives in 2020 and beyond."
As an infrastructure provider, in both wireless and wireline, Ericsson can do many things with its networks to ensure they are durable, reliable, open, scalable and interoperable.
Baffer says: "We want to make sure that our end of the deal is solid and that we are able to deliver broadband networks to our customers in the best way possible and also manage their networks when required. I see Ericsson being a definite leader in the area," she says.
