Universal Broadband
May 10, 2007
Found on BroadbandReports.com: We Demand 100Mbps For All.
Senator Jay Rockefeller is pushing a resolution urging the creation of a national broadband plan that would bring affordable, symmetrical 100Mbps broadband to the majority of the population by 2015.
A short, but interesting article, followed by even-more interesting commentary. I don’t know what the general political slant of Broadband Reports is (I wouldn’t think it’d really have one at all), but the majority of the commenters express everything from disdain to outright hostility toward the idea. Honestly, to me, it sounded like one of those ideas that only telecom companies would oppose.
I understand the concept of fiscal conservatism. And I believe in having balanced budgets. However—I think it is absolutely essential to our survival that we innovate. Bringing broadband Internet access to every home in this country isn’t just about file sharing and home web servers and video chatting. No one denies that the privileged class of citizens who have broadband Internet access at their homes enjoys quite a lot of “fluff” thanks to the connection. But people are having honest-to-goodness enlightening experiences online every day, and particularly for someone who grew up in a small town like myself, it can expand one’s world view a hundredfold.
That, and it’s cheaper than building Harvard and the Library of Congress in every city in America.
Where does the value 100Mbps come from? What does affordable mean?
Would it make more sense to say 1Mbps for all by 2010? Or 10Mbps 2012? Or… ?
I’d like to see the government stay out of as much as possible.
They seem to have a very hard time setting sensible concrete terms when it comes to things they don’t understand (like technology). Look at SOX or HIPAA…
new name for your site: mattthomasisboring.com
Wouldn’t 2-3 Mbps be good (if not more than) enough for general use?