Washington State's Network Future Report and Recommendations
This Report has been prepared as part of an effort by the Technology Alliance ("TA") to promote the development of a world-class communications network in Washington State. Other organizations in Washington State are involved in similar efforts. For example, the Governor's Telecommunications Policy Task Force ("Governor's Task Force") issued a report on similar issues in April 1996 entitled, "Building the Road Ahead: Telecommunications Infrastructure in Washington State." Cities and counties have undertaken their own initiatives. The TA desires to contribute to rather than supersede these efforts.
The TA agrees with the Governor's Task Force's conclusion that telecommunications policies adopted in Washington State today will determine:
whether Washington businesses have the communications tools they need to remain competitive; whether Washington can succeed in the competition to attract and retain businesses; whether Washington's students have the educational resources to enable them to compete in the job markets of the twenty-first century; whether consumers will enjoy the benefits of robust competition for telecommunications and information products and services; and whether Washington residents will have universal access to first-rate medical care and government services.
The TA is particularly concerned about the effects of Washington State's information infrastructure in determining whether the region is competitive in today's global economy. Advanced communications networks have become a critical tool for states in the competition for new businesses and jobs. Firms increasingly consider communications infrastructure as much as skilled labor, roads or airports, in selecting a new site. New businesses are also far better incubated in an environment containing advanced communications networks.
The TA believes that information is becoming increasingly essential to all those things we associate with quality of life: economic opportunity, education, health care and public services. Communications networks represent an enabling technology for state and local governments, community organizations, businesses and citizens. In particular, it is vital that schools throughout the state have the facilities which enable students to take advantage of the rich learning opportunities available through modern communications systems - principally the Internet.
The TA's recommendations will outline a strategy to enable Washington State to take full advantage of the benefits of the communications age. These strategies will require continuous re-evaluation as the technology environment is changing at unprecedented rates. Creating a world class information infrastructure will require increased private and public sector investments, a flexible and supportive regulatory environment that provides business and consumers with confidence and certainty, advanced education and training as well as measures to ensure that sections of the state are not denied access to the benefits of an advanced communications network.
This report will only briefly discuss the range of access delivery methods and technologies that can be utilized in improving today's information infrastructure in Washington State. The TA believes that there will be a range of communications networks and technologies operating in the future, each with an advantage in particular conditions, that will comprise the Washington information infrastructure. One of the major obstacles to comprehending this complex scene is the use of acronyms and terms of art which are meaningless to the ordinary reader. This report includes a glossary which the TA believes will prove very valuable to the reader. Fiber, coaxial cable, copper, cellular radio, paging, trunk radio, broadcast television and radio, microwave, and satellites will all play a role. The exact nature of the resulting communications infrastructure is far from clear. The only thing that is clear is that rapid technological change is inevitable and unpredictable.
This report will not focus on the range of regulatory issues being considered by Federal, state and local governments related to the transition from an era in which communications services are provided by government-sanctioned monopolies to an era in which these services are provided by competing service providers. The report will provide a brief summary of some of these regulatory issues. While the expeditious and wise resolution of these complex regulatory issues is critically important, the TA has chosen to focus on strategies and goals that are not directly part of this highly political process.
This report by necessity has distilled issues and technologies that are exceedingly complex and evolving. The intent of the Report is to improve general understanding of these critical issues and to encourage further study and dialogue.
Among the factors which will bear heavily on the quality of the decisions made by our state will be the insight and the care which are exercised by our officials, appointed and elected, in deliberating the issues with which they are going to be presented. The political effort which will be exerted by advocates from industry segments will be unprecedented because the financial impact of the decisions being made will be enormous.