WHY HIGH-SPEED ACCESS IS GOING NOWHERE FAST (AND OTHER IRONIES OF THE BROADBAND ECONOMY)

Virtually everyone agrees that broadband, broadly defined, represents the future of telecom. But current broadband penetration in both the residential consumer and business enterprise markets is essentially running in place. Faced with that reality—not to mention a stagnant economy and dried-up capital markets—developers of broadband technology and suppliers of broadband service must address critical questions about the logic, direction and value of their investments. We let experts from across the industry voice their opinions, concerns and hopes for the future of broadband. An analysis of high-speed paralysis by the Telephony staff.

Across the industrial world, growing numbers of business and residential consumers are accessing the Internet via DSL or cable modem — everywhere, it seems, but the United States.

All arguments about social, economic and geographic differences aside, the rapidly increasing broadband adoption rates in Asia, Europe and Canada offer a stark contrast to the virtually stagnant customer growth that defines the American marketplace. Broadband's failure to earn widespread consumer acceptance in the U.S. is a massive problem, and one that's not going away anytime soon.

With the annual Supercomm tribal gathering just weeks away, spreading the broadband gospel to America's residential and corporate masses is the most critical issue now facing the telecom industry. Telephony talked to 25 figures from across the telecom landscape to discuss both the obstacles blocking widespread broadband deployment and possible solutions. Our sources also spoke on the impact of high-speed access on their own businesses, the culture at large and, in some cases, even their personal lives.

The resulting composite portrait is not pretty. Consider the bitter irony of the Internet executive who cannot get either DSL or cable service at his own home, or the CEO of an independent broadband provider who ultimately determined that selling high-speed access was a lost cause.

Mired in a desperate economic environment that stifles innovation and hampered by regulatory straitjackets that favor all-powerful RBOCs and large cable operators, broadband is trapped in stasis — despite the fact that everyone agrees that the ongoing growth and success of the entire communications industry rests on its nationwide acceptance and penetration.

There are no easy answers or quick fixes, but in the following pages you'll hear all sides of the argument. And in our June 3 Supercomm special issue, we'll explore the other side of the equation — people across the nation who are actually using broadband — to understand where, how and why American consumers are fully embracing and applying the technology and services on which this industry's future is based. Maybe you'll find the answer there.—Jason Ankeny

(Interviews are listed online separately under the May 13, 2002, issue. For more exclusive interviews not found in the print edition of this issue, please read " High-speed access, continued.")