The business case for a national broadband policy

[Commentary] The National broadband Plan compares broadband to electricity. For those of us who have gotten used to broadband, the comparison to electricity is apt.

No matter how pokey the speeds here in the United States (most broadband connections via cable and DSL are in the range 3 to 4 megabits per second) once broadband is part of your life it's unthinkable to do without it. Yet, primarily because of cost, according to studies, 35% of U.S. households are without a broadband connection. In the plan, which was mandated as part of the federal stimulus plan, the FCC seeks to bring 100-megabit-per-second access to 100 million homes by 2020, and even faster connections to libraries and schools. While being able to stream Netflix movies faster is an appealing idea, it's the future of work that is the reason why increasing broadband speed and adoption are necessary.

Xerox CTO Sophie Vandebroek believes that in the future most of us will be attached to companies as contractors, working where we please. Maynard Webb, CEO of LiveOps, is building a business on that premise, running virtual call centers with thousands of contractors working when and where they please. Broadband is vital to that kind of economy, and the kind of desirable work that increasingly involves moving bits back and forth, rather than physical goods.