FCC McDowell's Great WSJ op-ed -- debunks need for new national broadband policy

Please read FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell's outstanding op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today. It eviscerates the sloppy thinking and weak evidence of net neutrality/open access proponents that are trying to manufacture a national broadband problem/crisis to justify their  new Big Government "National Broadband Policy."

This op-ed is particularly timely given the current  and tightly coordinated attempts by liberal House and Senate Democrats to establish the groundwork for an abandonment of competition and free market policies in communications and replace it with a new "National Broadband Policy" which is the liberal codeword for a Big Government-managed broadband sector.

House Telecom Chairman Ed Markey has had several hearings where the consistent theme has been how compeition and market forces have fallen short for the American consumer and why more government intervention is needed.

• Senator Dick Durbin and OpenLeft is hosting a series of four online discusions to help him "draft new legislation to establish a national broadband strategy for the United States."   
• This is the same crowd that failed in their attempt to pass net neutrality legislation last year and the same crowd that is trying to impose net neutrality/"open access" on the 700 MHz auction.

So what is the common thread here?

• They all completely ignore the obvious facts, or in their code: the "inconvenient truths" about broadband in the US.
• They have fabricated completely bogus allegations to try and manipulate the political process to believe that there is a broadband crisis -- where no problem exists. 

So what are the facts that the liberal Big Government regulatory types are completely ignoring becuase it does support new Big Government regulation of the Internet?

• The US has more real facilities-based broadband competition and choice than any nation in the world --by far -- not government-managed reseller "competition" which requires price regulation and discourages broadband investment in faster broadband speeds and deployment of new broadband networks because the provider cannot earn a return on their investment.  
• Broadband adoption in the US is happening faster than most any comparable product in US history.
• Broadband is currently available to 94% of all Americans and according to the FCC 87% of US zip codes have at least three broadband providers.
• Broadband speeds are increasing dramatically and prices are falling which means the real price of broadband per megabit is plummeting.
• The US is leading the world in fiber deployment.
• The US leads the world in WiFi hotspots. 
• Lastly the US leads the world in broadband users and has nearly twice the broadband household penetration as the Europe.

So what's wrong with America's current national broadband policy of promoting competition and deregulation -- nothing!!!

• The only way the liberal Big Government types supporting net neutrality/open access regulation can justify their position is to misrepresent the facts and decieve the American people -- and they do it all the time systematically -- with no shame because their great "ends" justify any "means" to get there.

Facts are pesky things. They will be the ultimate downfall of the net neutrality/open access camp.

• The facts are overwhelmingly on the side that competition and deregulation have worked tremendously for consumers over the last several years.
• They can't prove the opposite -- the American people are smart -- the facts will prevail.