BROADENING BROADBAND

Like public-utility commissions in many states, Maine’s is responding to the proposed merger of Verizon and MCI with this question, among others: Will the incentives of the market alone spread high-speed Internet access statewide or does it need a regulatory shove? California recently proposed an answer to that question, with a final decision expected in the next week or so. Maine should take note.

California would approve the merger with the conditions that Verizon stop requiring customers to separately purchase traditional local phone service as a condition for obtaining digital subscriber line (DSL) service, a condition federal regulators also added earlier this month. The merged company is to “increase corporate philanthropy over the next five years by an additional $20 million above current levels” (which seems odd – can philanthropy be mandated?). And it must spend $3 million a year for five years to expand broadband access, especially to under-served areas.

This last provision is important here.

Getting affordable high-speed – or at least higher speed, the world is passing the United States by in this regard – Internet access is crucial to many different types of businesses these days and is a policy of state government. Sending graphic-heavy documents, pictures and other large files, medical information, voice-over-Internet services etc., all require speed to be of practical use. That leaves regions without DSL or cable access at a crucial disadvantage, discouraging businesses from moving in and exacerbating the gap in opportunity between rural and urban places.

The answer to the market question, though Verizon might disagree, is, “What market?” According to a poll cited by the state Public Advocate’s Office, almost 90 percent of customers currently take local phone service from either Verizon or MCI. If the current rules remain, Internet access might also come from cable, but consumer benefits will otherwise take many years to arrive.

Maine’s PUC can set policy that is both in the mainstream of other states and beneficial to this state’s many rural areas by requiring the expansion of broadband as a condition of the merger. This won’t come as a surprise for the telecommunication companies, but it will further encourage development in regions that would otherwise be left behind by what has become as essential to business life as the telephone.