In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell hit the nail on the head in his op-ed “Broadband Baloney� [subscription required]. McDowell pointed out that consumer demand drives innovation, and also soundly rejected the “road of regulatory stagnation.� We couldn’t agree more.

McDowell also thoroughly debunked claims that the United States is falling behind in broadband deployment. Proponents of Internet regulation have cited statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that claim the U.S. has dropped to 15th from 12th in the world in broadband development. McDowell points out the OECD’s flawed methodology, and warns against letting this bad information lead the U.S. into adopting “innovation-killing policies.�
One major flaw that McDowell cites in the OECD study is the fact that it doesn’t include wireless services, particularly WiFi. As he puts it: “The OECD data does not include all of the ways Americans can make high-speed connections to the Internet, therefore omitting millions of American broadband users.�

Other flaws McDowell notes:

• Measuring broadband connections per capita rather than per household, which penalizes countries with larger households. Putting this into perspective, using this method means that even with 100% broadband deployment, the U.S. would fall to 20th.
• Overlooking the size of the U.S. With more than 65 million subscribers, the U.S. market is more than twice the size of its largest competitor.
• Ignoring population density. Thirteen of the 14 countries the OECD ranks higher than the U.S. are significantly smaller in geography.

And why are the statistics so focused on the past? Shouldn’t we be focusing on the future – ie, broadband adoption? That’s a race that America is winning – with our growth rate up to 52%.

Why do we keep returning to this study? Because unfortunately, many are using this data to call for new regulations on the Internet. As McDowell notes, “This would be a mistaken road to take – although it would hardly be the first time in history that alarmists have ignored cold, hard facts in pursuit of bad policy.�

Regulating the Internet — spun as so-called ‘net neutrality’ by proponents — would be bad policy. Regulating innovation never has worked, and never will. This country excels at leapfrogging over limitations and challenges with new technology and innovative solutions. And American entrepreneurs need an open environment so they can deliver the new products and next big thing that will promote broadband deployment.

So kudos to Commissioner McDowell.

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