The Fallacy of Equating Broadband with High Speed Internet Access

For many years policy makers, media, and industry influencers have used the terms “broadband” and “high speed internet access” as if they were synonymous. This incorrect line of thinking—akin to equating “freeway” with “driving to work” or “pipe” with “hot water”—has led to regulatory confusion and hindered innovation among broadband providers.

The term broadband refers to a physical connection between a subscriber and a network operator point of presence. In the telco case, the physical connection is either DSL or fiber, for cable it’s coax, and for wireless it’s airwaves. The word broadband was adopted to distinguish the transmission medium from its narrowband forerunners. High speed internet (HSI) access, on the other hand, is simply one of the many things that can be done over broadband (just like driving to work is one of the things that can be done on the freeway). HSI is a service, or logical connection, between a subscriber and an internet service provider (ISP). The broadband network operator merely provides a high-speed conduit between the ISP and the subscriber.

While this might seem to be somewhat pedantic to most of us, lack of understanding among policymakers unfortunately pollutes the debate surrounding what is sure to be a hot topic within a new FCC and a broadband stimulus package with many aspects yet to be defined: Whether and to what extent the Internet should be regulated. Many believe that regulatory or legislative action is required mandating that all traffic be treated the same (equally good or equally bad is rarely differentiated). Fair enough, but what traffic? Broadband traffic or HSI traffic? The difference is significant and has monumental impact on technical innovation and capital investment in network capacity.

Imposing government edicts stipulating that broadband operators refrain from hindering the traffic they carry between ISPs and subscribers may not be egregious (although even here many would argue that they are unnecessary). But regulating how they operate their physical broadband facilities will pretty much guarantee that HSI is the only service they carry and that the capacity in the ground today is what subscribers will have to live with for years to come, regardless of broadband stimulus spending.

Most would probably agree that it is unwise to impose regulation on a market that has, left to its own devices, performed rather well. The few cases of bad behavior have been successfully swatted aside using existing legal or regulatory instruments. But, if government feels it must regulate, at the very least there should be a bright line drawn between regulating logical connections traversing the broadband network and regulating the physical broadband network itself.