Google's Cerf urges wider Internet access

In the world according to Vint Cerf, Google's "chief evangelist" and one of the Internet's pioneers, broadband will be treated like a utility, with new infrastructure providing maximum benefit to the public and entrepreneurs seeking to harness it.

"It's not only broadband -- it's broadband access. ...That's important," Cerf said today at an FCC workshop that will help the agency craft a sweeping national broadband plan to be presented to Congress in February. "If we want to maximize the utility of the broadband investment in the United States, [the Internet] needs to be very widely accessible."

The forum is one of two dozen the FCC is holding in August and early September.

Cerf's vision is certain to carry considerable weight at the Democratic-controlled commission, given his stature as a key architect of the Internet and the close ties his company has forged with the tech-savvy Obama administration.

Likening broadband infrastructure to the electrical grid, Cerf said, "The Internet, in theory, need not dictate what applications you run, or what devices are connected to it. Its openness and freedom of invention is exactly what has created so many new opportunities."

As regulators and lawmakers craft policies affecting broadband, he recommended that they "keep in mind that this unbound notion of access to high-capacity is what enables all kinds of new opportunity."

Cerf emphasized that in situations where there is not much competition, there must be more awareness of the need to ensure that network openness is maintained.

He endorsed the concept of online companies "differentiating" their services by utilizing technologies that enable faster downloads of applications and content. That is an approach used by Google that has prompted accusations it is violating the network neutrality principles it espouses.

As long as open networks are maintained, there should be recognition that companies can "do something different" to support their online services with crossing over into anti-competitive behavior, Cerf said. "This is the kind of problem that you almost have to deal with on a case-by-case basis" and without the involvement of legislators, he added.