Vint Cerf, one of the “fathers of the Internet,” doesn’t think access to the internet should be a “human right”.
Cerf wrote in a New York Times editorial yesterday:
“Technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself.” “There is a high bar for something to be considered a human right. Loosely put, it must be among the things we as humans need in order to lead healthy, meaningful lives, like freedom from torture or freedom of conscience. It is a mistake to place any particular technology in this exalted category, since over time we will end up valuing the wrong things.”
Not everyone is quick to agree, notes C/Net.
In 2009, Finland announced that it was making one-megabit broadband a legal right, and plans to make 100-megabit broadband a right by the end of 2015. That country’s decision came just months after France announced that Internet access is basic human right.
The same year, the European Union’s European Commission Vice President Viviane Reding wrote to the European Parliament, saying that Internet access is no different than other basic freedoms we value.
The United Nations has proposed to make Internet access a human right.
After uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and other countries, the United Nations declared the Internet was a human right in June, 2011.
Internet access has already been made a human right in Estonia, France, Finland, Greece and Spain. This is accomplished by authorizing universal service-contracted providers with the duty to extend a mandatory minimum connection capability to all remaining desiring home users in the country.
In the United States, the Universal Service Fund (USF) subsidizes phone service in rural areas. The $5 billion fund, paid by nearly every phone user, props up large and small telcos serving rural areas.
Now, of course, most people use wireless phones.
The USF program was similar in concept to the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, which brought electrical service to the entire country.
On October 27, 2011, the FCC approved a six-year transfer process that would transition money from the Universal Service Fund to a new $4.5 billion a year Connect America Fund for broadband Internet expansion, effectively putting an end to the USF by 2018.
The FCC may subsidize at least two broadband competitors in rural areas through the Connect America Fund and a separate Mobility Fund. This essentially presumes that fixed wireless service and 4G mobile are, and always will be, separate services, and every rural customer is entitled to both.
Broadband wireless standards like LTE-Advanced, planned for Sprint and Clearwire, can deliver both 1 Gbps (fixed) or 100 Mbps (mobile) from one tower. With lower frequencies, far fewer towers are required. Perhaps Verizon and AT&T, in the 700 MHz band, may be viable “fixed” broadband providers using LTE-Advanced – with 2-3 times the capacity and 4×4 MIMO.
One might think Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist would be promoting universal internet access as a right, rather than discouraging it.
Cynics might say Cerf is positioning the company for television “incentive auctions” or for wholesale spectrum purchases, and doesn’t want the government to create provisions on their spectrum use.
Broadband wireless in the sub-700 Mhz band is the cheapest way to deliver broadband to rural areas. Unused television frequencies have 3-4 times the range of typical PCS frequencies.
The FCC estimated last year that 9.2 million U.S. households, or about 26 million people, don’t have access to wired broadband. Excluding those who can get broadband wirelessly, the number shrinks to 5 million households or 14 million people. That’s 4.5 percent of the population.
Google, Apple and Microsoft all want a “wireless cable” solution for 2-way data and streaming video. DSL won’t cut it. Incentive auctions may be their best shot — but spectrum capacity is limited. Perhaps Google doesn’t want wireless broadband to become “a right” — like England’s Freeview wireless cable – which is free.
Freeview provides more than 50 free tv channels to 18 million people in the UK.
How many free tv channels do YOU get?
Google already owns the dominant settop box (Motorola), the dominant mobile/tablet OS (Android), and the dominant internet video site (You Tube). What they NEED is spectrum. Perhaps 20 MHz at 2.6 GHz & 10 MHz of white space will do it.
Related Dailywireless articles include; Bills to Kill Unlicensed White Space?, White Space Trial Completed, Huawei to Trial White Space TD-LTE, White Space Trialed, NTIA “Finds” 1.5 GHz of Federal Spectrum, UK Delays 4G Auction Ofcom: White Spaces by 2013, UK Gets Free Public WiFi, Europe’s Digital Divide Auction, First Responders Get Bills for D-Block, D-Block: Back to Congress, AT&T and Verizon: No 700 MHz Interoperability For You!, D-Block Legislation Stalled, Seybold: Furgetabout Video on LTE Public Safety Band, and Broadband Disability Act, The 700MHz Club.
