As Goes Broadband, So Goes the Country
On January 20, 2009, things will start getting a lot better for the Internet. We’ve been waiting a long time.
For the past eight years, the very fundamentals (which were originally strong, now, not so much) of the Internet - openness, choice and innovation - have been consistently pummeled by the run-away policies (or lack thereof) of deregulation, unchecked market power, and just plain market failure.
Just as those policies led us all down a very slippery slope into our current financial crisis, they have also allowed for unprecedented consolidation, discrimination and stagnation in the Internet and communications markets.
It is no accident that we now trail at least 15 - count ‘em – 15 other countries around the world in broadband. At least. Our connections are slower, more expensive and less available. And for the country that created the Internet, that is a disgrace.
So let’s get on with it already. The United States has yet to articulate a national broadband policy and there has never been a better, and arguably, more urgent time in which to build one. And the quickest way to address the problem is to go right to the root of it – the lack of competition in the last mile to American homes and businesses. It’s certainly not the only problem, but acknowledging this very large elephant would change the face of American broadband dramatically.
The good news is that there are so many ways to get there, so many innovative companies willing to help and so many citizens willing to sign on. It could include public-private partnerships, federal funds, tax incentives and opening up more of the public airwaves. It might consider the universal service fund, originally conceived decades ago to bring telephone service to hard-to-reach Americans, as a way to do the same for broadband. The solutions are plenty, but first we need to acknowledge the problem and make a real commitment to fix it.
We owe it to our citizens to do what other countries have done - to treat broadband access the way we have our country’s highways, telephones and airwaves. Just as we committed as a country to connect our citizens through roads and telephone lines, we must now commit to connect them to the 21st Century. America must believe in Internet for Everyone, for as goes broadband, so will our country.
Comments
There's a lot of glitz here. What good is it if these stories don't reach our legislators and our president??? I've read that there's resistance to the president's broadband initiative in the bailout bill. Decent internet service will create jobs all the way from installers to subscribers!!!
Get us decent & AFFORDABLE internet service, PLEASE!!!!!!!
Too lazy and mean-spirited of me, but two steps to *start*.
I think of how nice it would be if internet access would become as easy to obtain as any other "utility" and indeed be treated as such. One may obtain electricity most places, phone lines most places; why not also, quality high-speed internet access *at a reasonable cost*?
Second, I think that, it will be absolutely impossible to move from analog to digital TV at a point when *everybody* is ready. Set a deadline, and someone will demand an extension. Therefore, switch to DTV *now*; stop paying the penalties to the companies who "purchased" the analog TV broadcast frequencies; and use the penalty funds to pay for building free-or-reasonably-priced internet access for remote areas.
Actually, there's funding available in several places, and this would make a superb component for economic stimulus! Deserves our support.
Without pain, there would be no suffering, without suffering we would never learn from our mistakes. To make it right, pain and suffering is the key to all windows, without it, there is no way of life
Lisa cobro
Just as those policies led us all down a very slippery slope into our current financial crisis, they have also allowed for unprecedented consolidation, discrimination and stagnation in the Internet and communications markets.
mpcoc
You betcha!
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My town was fighting for open wireless internet access. For the few pennies it might have cost each resident per year. (even if it amounted to $1-2 in taxes) it would have been well worth it. Why should we have to support Cable or Phone companies with steep monthly payments for internet access. Free wireless is already springing up in many places, such as rest areas or service plazas along some interstate highways. It's good for the country, good for education, good for business, and all of us benefit from it. Access ought to be Universal.
One of the quicker fixes to get broadband would be to require the telco's to actually make good on their previous agreements. The major telco companies have gotten over 200 billion - yes, billion, in tax breaks and other provisions for their promises to provide broadband to the masses. Do a search for 200 billion broadband - plenty of writeups about it.
Before we spend another dime for some national broadband initiative let's get what we're owed first. Perhaps our law makers and the FCC should punish any company that didn't keep to their agreements - that'd be novel. Sadly just look at the campaign donations for anyone dealing with telecommunications and you'll invariably see large donations from the Baby bells so I'm not optimistic.
For actually going ahead let's get back to the 1996 telco reform act that did help in forming real local competition. Unfortunately this was rolled back by Powel's kid as the head of the FCC and the pro-corporatism Bush administration.
In effect we don't need new ideas, we simply need to get our money's worth for the 200 billion tax payers have already paid, and then go back to the telco reform act to help competition actually exist.
You betcha!
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