MSPs Have Major Stake in Obama Internet Proposal
When it comes to government regulations managed service providers (MSPs), like most businesses, naturally lean to the right. So when President Obama calls for the expansion of the powers of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to increase the bandwidth available in local communities the reaction among the business community was almost visceral.
And yet, the limited amount of bandwidth that many local communities have access to creates an issue that MSPs regularly run into every day. Much of the last mile that these communities have access to is so congested that delivering a high-quality managed IT service isn’t really feasible. It's not feasible unless the local business has access to a dedicated network that the MSP needs to find some way to provide.
Carrier competition not working?
In theory, competition amongst carriers is supposed to result in both lower costs and better services. But in many communities that’s clearly not happening. A big part of the problem is that some cities and states have struck deals with carriers that for all intents and purposes make them the exclusive providers of Internet bandwidth for a particular region.
The motivations behind such deals vary. They range from poor decision making on the part of politicians to how much money a particular carrier has poured into a particular campaign fund. The problem is that those carriers then turn around and say they don’t have access to the capital need to build out network bandwidth, which is a back handed way of asking to increase pricing. Given how politically unpopular that winds up being, network bandwidth increases are few and far between.
Politics, resources and failure
Whatever the cause, the impact is the same. It’s as if the local politicians had contracted out the building of toll roads that allow traffic to get in and out of town to a contractor that has no motivation to build additional roads. The end result is traffic jams that stifle business transacts in that community. Most local communities would simply vote through a bond measure that would increase the number of roads in and out of the town, which in turn would increase economic activity.
In fact, that very scenario is playing out all over the globe. Citizens in many other countries have substantially better access to network bandwidth than many of their counterparts in the United States. There’s almost a direct correlation between where those investments have been made and the strength of the local economy.
Google can't be everywhere
Of course, competition is coming. Google, for example, has installed fiber networks that have dramatically increased bandwidth in several notable towns and cities. But even Google can’t be everywhere. The question then becomes whether local communities should have the right to take economic matters into their own hands regardless of what decision might have been made in a state capitol by representatives that, with the exception of a handful from the local community, don’t live in the areas affected by those regulations.
Federal power protecting local rights
When it comes right down to it, this is an argument about using Federal power to empower the local community. There’s no Federal requirement to actually do anything. In that context, the irony of the situation is that President Obama is making a case for exercising the might of the Federal government that many business executives abhor to ensure that the rights of local community that most business executives cherish are protected.
Assuming, of course, people can put aside their prejudices relative to what side of the political aisle the idea comes from, the end result should be an expansion of network bandwidth that will enable MSPs to more profitably deliver a much broader range of digital services to the benefit of all concerned.
