Nationwide Broadband is a big deal. Regardless of what Comcast and AT&T want. every citizen of this country must have access to a certain level of broadband internet and the sooner the better. I liken it to TV 60 years ago...Suppose the broadcast networks had said we're only going to broadcast to homes that pay us. The rest of the homes will be kept in the dark with no news or football.
No one would have gone along with that. We got to have our soaps, right?
Even third world countries are getting ahead of us in the broadband department with several concentrating on the various wireless systems which don't require hard connections to each house, and the latest systems can connect through walls.
So in Tennessee, we have 17% of the population who has access to broadband internet service, and don't bother to mention satelite service...so far it is totally unacceptable. 83% of us are in the dark.
Literally, as far as access to broadband. This is a travesty and something that could be easily corrected. Here is an open discussion, hosted by Open Left and Senator Dick Durbin, who says,
"Those who have already begun the discussion are already debating issues of broadband competition, as well as how we should define broadband. Others have raised the problem of states that have limited the ability of localities to provide their own service when the market doesn't. And there's a great deal of concern about consolidation in the broadband realm."Join the discussion at Open Left.
Peace,
Steve
Paul Krugman said the other day that not only are more people online outside the US, but the internet is 3x faster in France and a dozen times faster in Japan. My mind cannot compute 12 x faster!
ReplyDeleteI think nationwide broadband is a big deal, too. I read an article a few weeks ago about what it's like in parts of the US with no access to the internet. Their economies are very stagnant.
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