Draft report finds open access plays ‘core role’ in spreading broadband

By using a “multidimensional approach,” Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society has created a metric for categorizing the relative success or failures of broadband deployments across the developed world. Among the “most surprising and significant findings” the draft says, is that “open access policies…are almost universally understood as having played a core role” in spreading broadband deployment.

The draft report, commissioned by the Federal Communications Commission, finds there are generally two definitions of “broadband,” in the context of planning the transition to next-generation broadband networks. The first generation is characterized by its emphasis on capacity, usually in terms of download speeds. Meanwhile the next generation is characterized by an ever-present, seamless connectivity. The draft says the next generation transition will see the “always on” feature of broadband typified in more ubiquitous terms of “just there” connectivity: “connecting anyone, anywhere, with everyone and everything, without having to think about it...”