Our national broadband strategy: Wireless déjà vu?

[Commentary] The national broadband strategy articulated by the President is a good news/bad news sort of déjà vu for those of us who were on the front lines of municipal WiFi’s surge and eventual flame out. At least the bad news part is correctable if both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue learn one valuable lesson from 2006. The good news is that the President clearly understands the vital impact broadband can have on economic development. When integrated with appropriate existing programs such as urban enterprise zones, SCORE and local economic gardening, broadband indeed helps make businesses more competitive, enables telemedicine advances and transforms education and worker training. The problematic aspect of the strategy is that word “wireless.” Official D.C. is doing the same thing hundreds of elected officials did in 2006 – advocating a great set of significant, attainable economic goals, but betting on the weaker technology horse to carry us across this finish line.