Broadband Is A National Priority

Posted by Matt Brunk, Telecomworx | Mar 5, 2008

C-Span’s new weekly half hour interview with people that shape the digital world is “The Communicators.”

On Friday, February 29th- an interview with Walter McCormick, President and CEO of the US Telecom Association was featured.

McCormick stated:

A national broadband policy doesn’t exist and it’s time for government to establish a national broadband policy

We need an information services highway for supporting the super highway needs of this country and in so doing, will give the US an international competitive advantage

Rep. Ed Markey’s bill is bad law and the US Telecom Association is lobbying against it

Whether or not you agree with net neutrality I think you will agree as McCormick points out that the Internet can collapse because of spam, viruses, malwares and from excessive usage. The Internet is already a lifeline for one million patients on heart monitoring. The Internet supports US economic activity, education, health care (Ask Google) and personal security services. Now, bandwidth remains what McCormick states as the “tension” between network service providers managing congestion against the FCC’s requirement to allow people to run applications. Maybe the network service providers need to invest in similar technology found in Clean Pipes vs. Dirty Pipes.

Now McCormick sides with the current FCC policies and chums up to the current FCC chair and stated the same penetration of “broadband” in ZIP Codes has reached 80 million subscribers. This is where I do disagree: First, is defining broadband, and secondly until at least until every American has “high speed” Internet access, the US still lags in delivery of high speed Internet. McCormick conceded that “investment” is where there is “one hurdle.”

McCormick used the examples of putting a man on the moon at a cost of $10 billion in today’s dollars; $20 billion in today’s dollars for building the Interstate Highway system and that the current Internet investment level is $70 billion. McCormick also acknowledged that the past national efforts of putting man on the moon and the Interstate Highway system had advanced our nation and served as important benefits to all citizens.

I’ve made similar comments regarding telecom, particularly voice and the REA (Rural Electrification Act) and I think everyone agrees that our lives are different and for the better. The major difference between the past and the present is that substantial tax dollars were used to bring electricity and telephone services to every home along with providing the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System that serves the public and national defense. You’d think that everyone including the US government would think the same about the Internet- but they remain divided and too darn busy trying to figure out how to tax us. So I disagree on substance that the “one hurdle” isn’t just investment, it’s also government greed and make no mistake, there’s plenty of greed going around in the public sector. While investment dollars seemingly built the Internet in part- remember where those other dollars including taxes, came from: those pools of money that have a historical tendency to vaporize from American’s personal checkbooks and retirement accounts. Either way McCormick is still right- someone has to pay and someone has to collect.