I just caught an interesting article in USA Today (Martin wants broadband across USA - USATODAY.com).
High-speed Internet access is so important to the welfare of U.S. consumers that America can’t afford not to offer it — free of charge — to anybody who wants it, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin says.
This is kind of funny. Oh, about 10 years ago when I was working for Sybase I was at a conference where one of the keynoters was Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy. It might have been a Sun user meeting.. Broadband was still pretty new and I asked if he thought it would be good public policy to require broadband providers to subsidize rural access the way that the telephone companies were required to do many decades ago. This was at the open mike in front of about 3,000 people…
His response was a curt and commedically timed “No. Next questioner?” To be sure I was a bit insulted, but he’s Bill Joy and well…
I’m a big believer in free enterprise, but I still believe that providing broadband access to those at the endpoints (geographically or economically) is good for the competitiveness of the nation. Whether through a subsidy from the broadband ISPs or via a government-funded program, affordable broadband for all is important for our long-term status as a technology leader. Cheers to FCC Chairman Martin!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: broadband, fcc, public policy
