5 Signs Our Broadband Plan May Already Be In Trouble

Efforts to write a National Broadband Plan include some telltale signs that corporate lobbyists are still running the show, transparency isn't quite the priority the government claims, and consumers are little more than an afterthought.

1) Uncle Sam Is Already Wimping Out On Data Collection.

2) Connected Nation Has Cornered The Market On Broadband Mapping.

3) Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski Talks a Lot, But Says Nothing.

4) NTIA Judges For Grant Approval Are Anonymous.

5) Only Five of 51 panelists at FCC National Broadband Plan workshops were people not directly associated with a company: Dave Burstein, Craig Moffett, George Ford, Victor Frost and Henning Schulzrinne. Moffett is a stock jock whose positions (such as upgrades are unnecessary and consumers should be paying more money) are clearly not going to serve anyone but investors. Ford works at the Phoenix Center, an AT&T-funded "think tank," whose job is to parrot AT&T policy positions. Of the remaining three, only Burstein, a long-time telecom beat reporter, will likely ask any hard questions -- and then again his job is to get scoops, not to represent the public interest.