The Wireless Wars

Wireless broadband capacity has become an important basic resource for our economy and indeed our society. Ultimately it may rank up there almost with water and air. That's because so many of our important communications devices and countless applications in business and government are going wireless.

We are all aware of the growth of mobile phones and other wireless devices. But that's only the tip of the iceburg. The movement of important applications, such as power grid monitoring to wireless platforms adds an important new perspective to the situation.

Presently, broadband access is controlled by the telephone and cable companies. But this arrangement does not take into account the movement of broadband usage from those devices to important applications. It does not take into account the tremendous importance of broadband to our society. In short, the most relevant question is can the control of broadband be left to the phone and cable companies, or should it be placed in broader hands - hands that will need to be more accountable.

There are, of course, regulatory bodies to mitigate said control. In the US its the FCC and in Canada the CRTC. Both agencies have been struggling to keep up with the rapid change taking place in communications technology and its changing role in society. With mixed results. In Canada the very existence and/or structure of the CRTC needs to be rethought. There are other government bodies with powers in this space as well, but then we are into an uncoordinated set of policies and practices. Change is needed.

The FCC, in its efforts to keep up, is currently examining the direction its policies should take with regard to broadband. Needless to say, they are facing extreme lobbying pressure from the cable and telephone companies. It's time for the whole governance structure of broadband policy to be re-thought.