Net Neutrality Was Good Issue for Lobbyists, CEA’s Shapiro Says
Net neutrality may no longer be a significant issue five or 10 years down the road, as long as broadband offerings are transparent and customers know what they're paying for, CEA President Gary Shapiro said during an episode scheduled to air over the weekend on C-SPAN’s The Communicators. “My view is if we have competition, and if get the spectrum … if you have as a consumer five different sources of competition, then net neutrality fades away as an issue.”
Net neutrality has been good for lobbyists on both sides, Shapiro said. “People who get advertising love it.” But the significance doesn’t match the hype, he said: “I want to move past it. I want to move to the future and the future is spectrum."
The FCC’s push to make more broadcast and other spectrum available for mobile broadband is critical, Shapiro said. “You are having dropped calls,” he said. “You can’t get access to the Internet in a crowded environment in cities like New York and San Francisco. It’s very difficult. That is the future that is coming for the rest of the country.” Broadcasters continue to have a “phenomenal political lobby” and have “terrified members of Congress” with their ability to use their broadcast signal to “demonize” them, he said. But Congress has to recognize that broadcast TV serves less than 10 percent of U.S. homes, Shapiro said. “You have to say is it worth it to take up all the beachfront property, all the waterfront, for basically, you know, one type of ship.” Legislation that would allow the FCC to hold voluntary incentive auctions for broadcast spectrum has bipartisan support, he noted: “I think it’s a question of making it a national priority, leadership from the administration.”
Shapiro also complained about the lack of U.S. progress on free trade agreements in recent years. He blamed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and others in Congress. “You ask why,” he said. “For four years we've had a speaker of the House of Representatives that was far left and the unions were very much in synch with her and the unions in the United States incorrectly are hurting our country by saying, ‘Democrats, you may not pass free trade agreements.’ … It’s just killing our economy.” Broadcasters will “come out swinging” in a fight to get as much of the proceeds of the auction back as possible, he predicted. “Ultimately, there will be resolution, I'm convinced, in the next two years.”
Shapiro warned that in his view the U.S. continues to fall behind much of the world in broadband deployment. “We don’t have enough competition,” he said. “We haven’t freed up enough spectrum out there. In part, we've made it a little bit difficult for the telephone companies and others to compete.” Cable companies are doing the best job of competing with broadband offerings, he said: “I have broadband through a cable service …. It’s a good pipe to the home.”
Shapiro said mobile DTV could emerge as a viable technology despite Qualcomm’s failed MediaFLO offering. “If broadcasters really get behind it, which they haven’t, and really promote it, it could make a difference.”
Shapiro noted that Ford introduced its first electric car at CES. “Increasingly cars are consumer electronics products,” he said. Shapiro also said tablets were a key product at this year’s CES, with 80 new models introduced at the show. Shapiro said he was pleased that officials from the FCC and others in the government are making the trek to Las Vegas each year. “There are two types of policymakers we see in Washington -- those who have been to our show those that haven’t,” he said. “Those who have been to the show understand the dynamism of the industry, interaction, the importance of the major issues like trade and innovation. Those that who not have been to the show, frankly, we're just another industry to them.”