National Broadband Policy Rant

NATIONAL BROADBAND POLICY RANT
[SOURCE: INTERNET.COM, AUTHOR: Mark Koskenmaki]
[Commentary] Why do we need to know how many Americans subscribe to broadband services? Why would the mayor of my town, for instance, want to know? What public purpose would be served by expending resources to find out? Koskenmaki argues there is no reason. So why is the FCC and Congress in a dither about where broadband is available? If people want it, it will come. Just like grocery stores. If it won't, then the real question of consequence is: WHY? Is it not economically feasible? Is it physically not feasible? Is the actual demand enough to sustain the mechanism to provide the service? What artificial obstructions exist to providing broadband? There are only two choices: Either private enterprise fills the needs, like grocery stores do—or government takes over and "takes care of us" like they did with the telephone monopoly way back when. There is no "middle ground". For decades we paid absurdly high costs for phone services, and "innovation" and "change" did not even exist. Either we become ardent, vocal, and so persistent in our defense, insisting upon keeping free enterprise alive and the regulators the hell away...or we give up and admit that we prefer monopolies.
http://www.isp-planet.com/fixed_wireless/politics/2007/national_broadban...