Editing Broadband open access

'''Broadband open access''' is an issue of [[policy debate]] in [[telecommunications]], regarding whether or not companies which own [[broadband telecommunication infrastructure]] (such as cable operators) should be required to provide access to their facilities for competing businesses which do not own physical infrastructure. The issue came to the fore in [[United States|the U.S.]] in 1998, when [[AT&T Corporation]] announced its plan to acquire [[Tele-Communications Inc.|TCI]], then the nation's largest cable operator. It involved municipal and local governments, the courts, [[Federal Communications Commission]] (the FCC), Congress, businesses, [[industry association]]s, [[consumer advocacy groups]], and many others. Similar issues arose in other countries such as the [[Netherlands]], [[Hungary]], and [[Canada]].

In the United States, [[cable operators]] were not required to provide access to their facilities to other competing businesses. However, local telephone providers with physical infrastructure, or [[incumbent local exchange carrier]]s, had such an obligation. This asymmetrical scheme of regulation became a problem when the two industries' businesses came to overlap and the boundary between them eroded. This transformation of industrial landscape, often called [[Media convergence|convergence]], happened in the broadband [[Internet service provider]] market. To make matters worse,{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}} the cable operators were the leading camp although local telephone carriers were burdened by the open-access obligation.

Broadband high-speed internet has become a worldwide breakthrough for telecommunication services.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}} The service has become crucial for businesses to be able to communicate with customers and is on the verge of being a standard [[public utility]], rather than a luxury for residents.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}} Although other services are still offered, like [[dial-up Internet access]] or [[satellite internet access]], broadband internet is the most convenient and fastest mode of telecommunications.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}} With broadband open access, the popularity of this service is in great demand. The debate of making incumbent cable operators obligated to allow competitors to wire into their [[infrastructure]] is comparable{{Says who|date=June 2011}} to the Bell Operating Company (BOC) issue that split into the [[Regional Bell Operating Companies]]. Leading [[cable operators]] can easily avoid competition due to reasons such as lack of funding for those competitors to build their own backbone network, or even the lack of space available.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://xtrium.com |title= Fix Broadband }} Sunday, 7 March 2021 </ref>

For the past couple of years now,{{When|date=June 2011}} President [[Barack Obama]] has set out to try to resolve these issues. On February 10, 2011, he announced plans to expand wireless Internet access.<ref>[https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/02/10/president-obama-details-plan-win-future-through-expanded-wireless-access www.whitehouse.gov] President Obama Details Plan to Win the Future through Expanded Wireless Access</ref> This plan intends to provide high-speed wireless services to 98 percent of Americans or more. The idea behind this is to increase education among Americans, build businesses and profit, and support [[state-of-the-art]] technology for state officials. In terms of broadband open access, the plan will be deployed by leading carriers of high-speed Internet. However, the debate may still remain of how this helps the incoming [[service provider]] or smaller companies that already exist. Will small companies earn profit if the country is provided Internet through the leading companies?

Broadband open access has also brought on many questions of how services to competition is offered, such as [[unbundled access]] services sold to the new company. This includes services that can be hard to duplicate. The concept is like what service providers offer their own customers and having [[television]], voice, and Internet service bundled into one package. Any competitor may rent office space in an incumbent's central office, place equipment to interconnect with their network, or purchase other related services.<ref>{{cite book |title=Digital Crossroads |last=Nuechterlein |first=Jonathan |author2=Weiser, Philip J. |year=2005 |publisher=The MIT Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=[https://archive.org/details/digitalcrossroad00jona/page/79 79] |isbn=978-0-262-14091-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/digitalcrossroad00jona|url-access=registration }}</ref> The company can offer the same deal to a competing company requesting use of their network and facilities. The new entrant has a right to purchase access to the incumbent on an unbundled basis.<ref>{{cite book |title=Digital Crossroads |last=Nuechterlein |first=Jonathan |year=2005 |publisher=The MIT Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=[https://archive.org/details/digitalcrossroad00jona/page/81 81] |isbn=978-0-262-14091-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/digitalcrossroad00jona|url-access=registration }}</ref> Getting unbundled services means the new entrant has the opportunity to invest in its own network and therefore spend less on buying everything [[wholesale]]. They are able to make a [[Profit (economics)|profit]] using their own equipment and do not have to spend it all on the incumbent hardware and software provided.

==See also==
Such an initiative exists in Lund (Sweden) through a system called BRIKKS edited by the company Labs² [https://web.archive.org/web/20071215005321/http://www.labs2.com/default.html?language=en]

==References==
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[[Category:Broadband]]