ADC’s Roscitt: Lack of broadband is symbol of crisis

NEW YORK--The business and financial crisis enveloping the telecommunications industry got its start long before the events of Sept. 11, and the symbol of that crisis is the industry’s failure to deploy broadband technology, according to ADC Telecommunication Chairman and CEO Rick Roscitt.

In a keynote address at this week’s Telecom Business World conference. Roscitt noted the admirable cooperation shown by industry service providers and vendors as they collectively recover from the national tragedies. A similar approach to broadband deployment might have resulted in penetration levels of 70% nationwide, compared to the current 10%-12%, he said.

If that had happened, “this industry would still be a dynamic enabler of high-tech growth instead of a symbol of the collapsing technology sector,” Roscitt said.

Roscitt added that the broadband last mile is underdeployed because the industry is a “mosaic” of competing self-interests.

“Customer needs have taken a back seat to turf wars,” he said.

Public policy makers were also taken to task by Roscitt, who accused them of becoming “punitive and ineffective disciplinarians” that offer “little in the way of incentives or creative solutions.”

Roscitt called for greater cooperation between the industry and the policy makers. Specifically, he’d like to see the Bush administration create a national broadband policy, which exist in all countries except the U.S. and Italy. Of the countries that have one, Roscitt said Japan would deploy next-generation broadband capability to all homes and businesses by 2005.

Roscitt said one carrier in South Korea connects more broadband customers in a week than any one U.S. carrier does in a quarter and noted that China adopted a five-year, $151 billion telecommunications program focused on broadband delivery.

“The lack of widespread broadband capacity to consumers and small businesses costs the economy as much as $500 billion a year,” he said. “To paraphrase an old political quote, ‘$400 billion here, $500 billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.’”