Vint Cerf to FCC: Assure Fairness and Open Access to Net Resources

Vnt Cerf. Photo Credit: JD Lasica from Flickr

In Cecelia Kang’s Tech Post column today, Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf asks the Federal Communications Commission how it plans to use spectrum for mobile broadband and assure fairness and open access to networks for all. Cerf noted his concern that monopoly and quasi-monopoly systems of control historically have provided unequal access to network resources. Here’s what Cerf had to say:

I’d like to argue strongly that we should open spectrum up, allow it to be shared in the same way that we’ve used 802.11 [wi-fi]. It will unleash an avalanche of new applications and probably generate more revenue on average than a single auction sale of that spectrum. Would you consider that?

The second point has to do with broadband access and my concern about keeping that access fair and equitably accessible to anyone who has a new application. I’m very worried that history has shown that monopolies, quasi-monopolies or other systems that control broadband access could interfere with the use of that capability for many people with new ideas. I’d like to know how the FCC proposes to assure that fairness and open access to this network resource will be assured.

The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy has called for policymakers to “maintain the national commitment to open networks as a core objective of Internet policy” (recommendation 9). [Disclaimer: Google Vice President Marissa Mayer served as co-chair of the Knight Commission.]