Building Careers and Shaping Public Policy

4 June 2003

The Honorable Daniel Akaka
United States Senate
Washington, DC  20510

Dear Senator Akaka:

In June 2002, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-United States of America (IEEE-USA), supported by Cornell University, held a Workshop with the objective to explicitly include Advanced Fiber Networks (AFNs) -- Ethernet networks over fiber infrastructures capable of supporting gigabit speeds -- in the policy debate on accelerating U.S. broadband deployment.  It sought thereby to fill, "…the gap among technologies that are already included in the national debate, e.g., DSL, cable-modem, and aspects of wireless."  From that beginning, and followed by a process of continuing analyses, we have concluded that AFN should be seriously considered as a policy option for this purpose.  Please see the attached position statement, "Accelerating Advanced Broadband Deployment in the U.S." recently approved by the IEEE-USA Board.

The need for the U.S. to go rapidly beyond current broadband offerings by incumbent telephone and cable-modem providers of asymmetric services (nominally 1-3 megabits down stream, kilobits up) has been powerfully demonstrated by developments around the world, especially those in South Korea and Japan.

South Korea’s broadband deployment policies allow direct competition among Telecom service providers, each managing its own multi-megabit, symmetric network infrastructure.  A significant outcome of this approach: South Korea has vaulted from an economy in recession in the late nineties to an economy in which information technology (IT-related) activity now represents approximately 13% of total GDP.  IT accounted for more than 50% of South Korea’s recent total growth.

Japan has accepted the challenge represented by South Korea and has implemented national programs and policies to overtake and exceed South Korea’s performance in Telecom and IT.  Japan’s policies permit competitors to share the broadband infrastructure of its dominant player, NTT (Nippon Telephone and Telegraph).  Consumers are now being offered a host of affordable competitive choices, from ultra-high-speed [gigabit] fiber lines to wireless connection hot spots throughout Tokyo.

Current U.S. policies have not facilitated economic or technological outcomes similar to those now being experienced in South Korea, nor the increasingly advanced capabilities being offered in Japan.   The IEEE-USA believes that, with appropriate policies, the U.S. could not only catch up, but could surpass the performance of both South Korea and Japan.

Advanced Fiber Networks represent a new paradigm of end-user owned/controlled telecommunication infrastructures for use by their owners.  Such ownership has the potential to be easily and inexpensively deployed today by enterprises of significant size, and by agents acting in the aggregated interests of multiple smaller end-users, including individuals, to achieve their joint benefit.  Included among such end-users are universities, schools, municipalities, hospitals, libraries, plus emerging, high priority Emergency First Responder Networks (EFRNs) in support of Homeland Security. 

This new paradigm of deployment, however, also represents a technology that is potentially disruptive to the current telecom infrastructure and therefore has stimulated resistance by incumbents and others with market power.  The potential of the AFN is unlikely to be fairly tested without significant changes in policies practiced, perceptions held, and approaches taken by key technology players at all levels. 

U.S. technology sectors must be open to change, even fundamental change.  Rather than any party attempting to block the opportunity for a new technology such as the AFN to demonstrate its value, all parties must explore solutions that include incumbents as constructive partners into the future. 

We recommend that U.S. policymakers explore mechanisms necessary to give the new paradigm of AFN deployment, especially as it can be complemented by broadband wireless technologies, a fair chance to prove itself in the U.S. Telecom technology marketplace.

IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc, created in 1973 to promote the careers and public policy interests of the more than 230,000 electrical, electronics, computer and software engineers who are U.S. members of the IEEE. If we can be of further assistance, please contact Deborah Rudolph in our Washington office at (202) 785-0017 x 8332 or email at d.rudolph@ieee.org.

Sincerely,

James V. Leonard, P.E.
President, IEEE-USA

(Sample of Letter Sent to U.S. Senate, House Science Committee
& Federal Communications Commission)