Genachowski Sells Broadband to the Business Crowd

Sure, he’s the rock star chairman of the powerful Federal Communications Commission, but standing onstage in the Ronald Reagan Building amphitheater this morning, Julius Genachowski looked for all the world like a nervous graduate student auditioning for a professorship. Behind the lectern and under the spotlight, he shuffled from foot to foot and back again. There was even the requisite tuft of hair standing up on the back of his head. Why was Genachowski nervous? Who knows. Maybe he gets jittery in front of crowds. Or maybe it was because he was there to sell the assembled crowd of dark suits on the promise of broadband Internet.

For those of us who believe in a future where broadband helps engage more people in a better politics, our hearts should go out to Genachowski. In other words, he shuffles for us. If you gather together a bunch of e-government aficionados, and you begin to think it’s conventional wisdom that ubiquitous high-speed Internet connectivity is a worthwhile venture. That the future downright demands it. But that’s not reality. Pockets exist where the utter necessity of broadband isn’t yet accepted wisdom, no more so than in some of America’s boardrooms. Today’s event is the Innovation Economy Conference, a joint project of the Aspen Institute and Intel. If Genachowski can sell the assembled crowd on the idea that broadband means better business, then digital democracy stands a chance of piggybacking on that same infrastructure.

And so, the FCC chair answered the question underlying this entire event. Larry Summers articulated it at last night’s opening keynote conversation, held over a steak dinner in the Reagan building’s magnificent atrium. How can America compete? What are the prospects for the U.S. at a time when China is growing like a teenager and countries like Brazil are rushing towards the future? “To stand still is to fall back,” said. Genechowski. “And I can tell you, other countries are not standing still.” Genachowski’s draft of a national broadband strategy is due on President Obama’s desk in February. A more robust communications infrastructure, argued Genachowski, is going to prepare the United States to greet the future as a friend, rather than as a frightening adversary.

Think of it like universal electricity or nationwide telephone service, Genachowski said. “Broadband innovation is an essential part of the solution to almost every problem our country faces,” from education to green energy technologies to helping America find its way out of a jobless recovery. For companies, like Intel, hunting for skilled workers, Genachowski painted a picture of a wealth of future workers disconnected from the information grid. “If you can't get online, you can’t find a job,” he argued.

Still, he attempted to ease worries that this newly proactive FCC is somehow more interested in regulation than innovation. “The FCC has succeeded best when it has empowered innovators to innovate without permission,” he assured conference goers. And in front of this crowd, Genachowski was far more interested in opening up minds to the business potential of ubiquitous broadband than in debating telecommunications policy’s stickier points. Nonetheless, he was asked about the thorny question of just how fast broadband has to be to really be considered appropriately zippy for modern living. Different uses require different speeds, he said. But the speed benchmarks of today are simply temporary realities. “We hope that 2x that, 10x that, 100x that will be achievable in the future.”

(Genachowski is a man who actually says things like ten ex where most of us would simply say “ten times.”)

“The mantle of innovation is there for us to seize,” Genachowski said with a flourish as he ended his remarks. “Together, we must reach for it.” And with that, the quiet crowd shuffled out to lunch.