Verizon CEO: Other nations 'not even close' to U.S. in broadband

Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg on Tuesday subtly slammed the premise of the FCC's National Broadband Plan, stressing the United States was already the envy of other countries in broadband adoption.

Even though the FCC argues otherwise -- chiefly presenting its broadband recommendations as a way to expand high-speed Internet services while returning the U.S. market to the top of the world rankings -- Seidenberg said it was other nations that lagged behind.

"One. Not even close," the CEO said of the U.S. market's broadband standing during a discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations.

According to Seidenberg, the miscalculation stems from FCC's regulatory logic:

"Anytime government -- whether it's the FCC or any agency -- decides it knows what the market wants and makes that a static requirement, you always lose. So this FCC decided that speed of the network was the most important issue. So that's all they measured.

So they will say, if you go to Korea or you go to France, you can get a faster Internet connection. Okay? That could be true in some companies -- in some countries. The facts are that, in the U.S., there is greater household penetration of access to the Internet than any country in Europe.

In Japan, where everybody looks at Japan as being so far ahead, they may have faster speeds, but we have higher utilization of people using the Internet. So our view is, whenever you look at these issues, you have to be very careful to look at what the market wants, not what government says is the most important issue."

More of the interview, moderated by The Wall Street Journal's Alan S. Murray, follows the jump.

SEIDENBERG: Let's take wireless, for example. Everybody says the European system was kind of better. Well, that's very interesting. If you look at minutes of use, the average American uses their cell phone four times as much -- four times as much -- as the average European. If you look at Europe, they publish penetration rates of 150 (percent), 160 (percent), 170 percent meaning that people have more than one phone, two phones, three phones.

You know why? Roaming rates are so high. My guess is you probably have two or three different phones to carry to -- to use in different countries because your roaming rates are so high. And you say, yes.

So my point is it's a fallacy to allow a regulatory authority to sit there and decide what's right for the marketplace when it's not even close.

MURRAY: So on the measures that matter most to you, where does the United States rank in terms of --

SEIDENBERG: One. Not even close.

MURRAY: Number one?

SEIDENBERG: Yes. Verizon has put more fiber in from Boston to Washington than all the Western European countries combined. All. We have -- if you look at smart phones -- not us, Apple, Google -- they have exploded this market in the U.S. Ask any European if they're not somewhat envious of the advancements of smart-phone technology in the U.S.
So it just seems to me this is just not even close.