Rep. Markey Endorses EFF's Open Platform Proposal ================================================= by Daniel J. Weitzner March 18, 1994 The 103rd Congress and the Clinton Administration are currently focusing major political attention on the modernization of the nation's telecommunications infrastructure, and EFF's Open Platform Proposal is at the center of this debate. EFF's Open Platform Proposal suggests policies to make voice, data and video services accessible to everyone, in the near term, and at low cost. Without a deliberate effort by government, business and individuals to build these requirements into the communications infrastructure, the free speech protections guaranteed by the Constitution will be in jeopardy. Representative Edward Markey (D- Mass.), Chair of the House Telecommunications and Finance Subcommittee, explained during hearings on January 19, "I believe that [EFF's] proposal will help to empower and enrich individuals in addition to helping bring the Information Age to small businesses, schools, libraries and hospitals." The Infrastructure Debate ------------------------- The political dynamics of the telecommunications debate have largely stalled real progress over the last ten years, as entrenched commercial interests wrestle over who will control and dominate markets such as information services, equipment manufacturing and long distance service. Local Bell telephone companies have suggested that Information Age services can only be brought to the American public by a massive, sudden investment in fiber optic cable to each home and office. Other commercial forces, including long-distance telephone companies, newspaper publishers and electronic publishers, oppose any public subsidy of infrastructure that will be built by the Bell companies. And consumer advocates are concerned that the rush to deploy "fiber-to-the- home" will result in high costs to the average consumer with little demonstrated benefit. EFF believes it is time to refocus the debate by seeking near-term solutions that encourage the rapid development of a diverse information services market and help realize the democratic potential of new information media. We fully agree that the nation will need very high capacity infrastructure in the future, but there are many transitional steps that we can take along the way to the network (or networks) of the future. If we are to make progress in the near term, we must identify short-term goals that are politically, technologically and economically achievable. Open Platform as a Guiding Communications Policy Concept -------------------------------------------------------- The telecommunications industry has a valuable lesson to learn from the computer industry. The most important contribution of the computer industry in the past generation was not a machine, but an idea - the principle of open architecture. In the personal computer market, one company creates the hardware "platform" on which a variety of software programs can run. This platform includes an openly-published set of specifications that other, often smaller, independent firms can use to develop software products that run on that platform. The software products fuel an interest in purchasing the hardware; the hardware provides the platform on which the software can run. In this way, the company that produced the original platform takes advantage of the smaller companies' ingenuity and creativity to create a market for its machine, and vice versa. To bring the benefits of the Information Age to the American public in the 1990s, we need to build an open, ubiquitous, digital communications platform for information services. After a year of investigation and discussions with technical and marketing experts, EFF believes that the components of such a platform are already available in the public switched telephone network, in the form of ISDN. ISDN, or Integrated Services Digital Network, is a long-planned, but dramatically under-utilized, service developed by the telephone companies. If ISDN were widely deployed and affordably priced, it could meet many of the near-term information needs of the American public. It could enable all people, no matter what their political view or socioeconomic background, to reap the benefits of the Information Age. As Rep. Markey said in a recent speech, "This ISDN proposal for digital service is consistent with the virtues of the Communications Act of 1934 of universal service, diversity and localism. As regulated common carriers, the telephone companies are natural bearers of the aspirations of those who would like to democratize the access to the Information Age regardless of what social strata one may grow up in." And ISDN can be widely deployed and affordably priced within the next few years. In a recent report entitled A Migration Plan for Residential ISDN Deployment, Dr. Lee L. Selwyn of Economics and Technology, Inc., concluded that ISDN can be made available at less than $10 per month to individual subscribers. But the public switched telephone network is only one player to consider. Other media outside the public telephone network, such as the evolving cable television infrastructure and wireless personal communications networks, may also play an important role in providing digital access. Wide-Spread Support While consensus on long-term infrastructure goals remains elusive, EFF's Open Platform Proposal has attracted support from national policy makers and a wide variety of public and private constituencies, including some groups that have long histories of disagreeing with one another on these issues. In addition, EFF is excited to see that the emerging consensus forming around the Open Platform Proposal includes new participants in the telecommunications policy debate - computer companies, which have been traditionally skeptical and silent about infrastructure improvements. EFF has secured support from key computer company CEOS, who are now willing to testify about the need for near- term infrastructure before Congress. Those at the helm of our nation's computer companies recognize that their ability to provide innovative products in the future depends on the availability of a digital communications infrastructure that is widely available and affordable. Furthermore, many telephone companies have endorsed our proposal. Irwin Dorros, Bellcore Executive Vice President for Technical Services, said he was in "violent agreement" both with the transitional Open Platform Proposal outlined by EFF and EFF's assumption that ISDN is a necessary infrastructure step in the development of future broadband capabilities. Bell Atlantic recently released a commissioned paper by the National Economic Research Associates (NERA), entitled ISDN and the Public Switched Network: Building an "Open Platform,"which states that EFF's proposal "should be applauded as a sophisticated pro-consumer look at ISDN and for refuting the claim frequently made by consumer groups and others that household users want or need only 'plain old telephone service.'" The Consumer Federation of America (CFA), one of the most vociferous opponents of rapid fiber optic deployment, has also offered strong, active support for the Open Platform Proposal. The CFA agrees that access to affordable, end-to-end digital services within the public switched telephone network has real value for consumers. While the CFA is skeptical about the need for broadband services, it is enthusiastic about the potential of narrowband ISDN for meeting a wide range of consumer electronic information and communications needs. Though narrowband ISDN is not without cost, consumer advocates believe that the cost is reasonable, based on the identifiable benefits of the service, unlike the cost of broadband deployment. The Road to an Open Platform ---------------------------- On January 19, 1993, EFF's Chairman of the Board Mitchell Kapor testified before the House Telecommunications and Finance Subcommittee. EFF called on Congress to promote our Open Platform to facilitate the development of an affordable, widely accessible, digital communications infrastructure. At those hearings, Rep. Markey announced that "we have a choice of listening to the call for action, of answering the plea for a national communications and information infrastructure, or instead listening to the same cacophony which has led to gridlock for so many years." But convincing Congress is only one important step necessary to ensure the deployment of an Open Platform for communications. ISDN deployment requires the cooperation of numerous public and private organizations and political constituencies. While a national policy is needed to ensure that the necessary accessibilty and interconnection of service providers is achieved, state public utility commissions will be at the forefront of establishing pricing policy for ISDN service. Private organizations and individuals will need to convince their local public utility commissions and telephone companies that there is a need for affordable ISDN service now. EFF is currently developing a state strategy to make sure that all obstacles to rapid development of a national communications infrastructure are being confronted.