John Hodgman: ‘The government should be laying down broadband like Eisenhower laid down interstates’

As far back as 2006, author and actor John Hodgman was using postal envelopes to explain how Internet service providers might let content from Google and Amazon through to consumers very easily while discriminating against content from other companies. Now Hodgman is back at it.

In an essay on Tumblr, Hodgman takes aim at large telecom companies who can "control what is increasingly a mandatory purchase" for many Americans: access to high-speed broadband that connects them to information, entertainment and economic opportunity. "I believe in capitalism but not monopolies," Hodgman wrote. "I believe in entrepreneurship and I am not against government efforts to foster it. I believe more communities should invest in their own broadband to break regional telecom monopolies. Personally I believe that the federal government should be laying down broadband like Eisenhower laid down interstates. And I believe preferential fast-laning for big companies will decrease competition and quality and ultimately hamper what is poised to be the most important area of economic, cultural, and technological innovation of our time."