21285 - SCTE Broadband Dec2021 COMPLETE v1

34 Vol. 43 No. 4 - November 2021 Issue Ben Bawtree-Jobson, CEO of America’s leading privately owned open access broadband developer SiFi Networks, explains how a new model of fiber optic broadband is laying the groundwork for major social and economic change ahead of the release of the company’s book, Broadband: The Second American Revolution . An excerpt Ben Bawtree-Jobson, CEO of America’s leading privately owned open access broadband developer SiFi Networks, explains how a new model of fiber optic broadband is laying the groundwork for major social and economic change ahead of the release of the company’s book, Broadband: The Second American Revolution At the same time, American cities are preparing to become smart cities of the future, laying the foundations for everything from smart traffic management to e-health apps — and in doing so, tackling inequality in the form of the digital divide. It’s clear that change is here. In the same way that colonialism, taxation, bad trade deals and poor governance triggered the American Revolution, the shortcomings of the American broadband model are prompting a technological revolution. This revolution, in the form of open-access fiber networks, seeks to challenge the century-old model used in the telecommunications industry, to bring it in line not only with the needs of consumers today, but the needs of smart cities of the future. Since its inception over 100 years ago, the US telecoms industry has been characterized by a lack of competition. Whether it was the unregulated monopoly and duopoly of the original Bell System or the regulated natural monopoly of AT&T, large companies have dominated. Today, there is more competition in the sector than there has ever been, but still not enough to make it as dynamic as it could be. Far from satisfying the needs of consumers, the current makeup of the market continues to severely limit consumer choice for millions across the country. As this book will go on to examine, the open-access model of broadband seeks to build on the private model of broadband ownership, by separating the owner of the network — typically the service provider that invests in and builds the physical infrastructure — from the service providers that subsequently lease the network to provide retail services to consumers. In doing so, we’ll explore just how open-access ultimately benefits consumers, because better competition results in better value offerings. But open-access is more than just a wholesale platform — it’s designed to provide the basic infrastructure for everyone from ISPs and mobile carriers to service providers and even municipalities, to live and work in By Ben Bawtree-Jobson, CEO, SiFi Network, a privately owned open access broadband developer from Broadband: The Second American Revolution from the industry