Forget Moral Fiber. The scalable underpinnings of that in a large, growing population depend upon a new level of fiber, such as Google Fiber.
In all honesty, why the heck can't we just extend our national initiative to bring this level of fiber to every US household ... ourselves? Why depend on individual companies to voluntarily provide the bare minimum?
This would likely be better done in reverse. Google, please help bring some moral fiber to Congress, so they'd bring Google-level fiber to all US citizens, pronto?
Okay, it's true that it's our own fault. Google, just help bring some more fiber to the US electorate, so they'd send Congresspeople with moral fiber to Congress.
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ReplyDeleteWhy don't we have it?
ReplyDeleteBecause it would step on someone's rent seeking.
"ALEC also unsuccessfully worked to undercut a public broadband system proposed by the city of Lafayette, Louisiana. ALEC’s Louisiana state chair (a legislator) introduced a bill that would’ve placed onerous restrictions on how the city could use fiber-optic cables to provide cheap broadband."
http://www.theind.com/news/10337-lus-cited-in-alec-expose
Good for Louisiana, alas, that same ALEC model bill has been passed by other states. Let's face it, the only political actor strong enough to beat corporate rent seeking consistently is the military-industrial complex.
You want Google Fiber everywhere? The only way its going to happen is if the Armed Services Committees add it to the GPS project. Incidentally, how many people pay attention to the fact that the world's first "global utility" is owned and operated by the US Air Force at no cost to the end user?
If GPS was offered as public service by, by say, Intel, they wouldn't let you forget it.
Beo,
ReplyDeleteWrt gps being free, shhhh don't give them any ideas!
Now I'm starting to see where you're coming from wrt the defense channel for these upgrades...
rsp
ps Dont be surprised if we wake up one day and have a completely new fuels system courtesy of the DoD.
ReplyDeleteMay take a warrior President to implement it though.....
Rsp
There is indeed a lot of Luddite & rent-seeker backlash
ReplyDeleteTelcos succeed at killing off muni broadband in South Carolina
http://civsourceonline.com/2012/06/29/telcos-succeed-in-killing-off-muni-broadband-in-south-carolina/
You'd think these sort of measures could challenged as unconstitutional, if not unfair. Where's the ACLU?
"Where's the ACLU?"
ReplyDeleteI'm a donating member. They are always short of funds and have to pick their battles.
Wish I could afford to give more.
Matt: "ps Dont be surprised if we wake up one day and have a completely new fuels system courtesy of the DoD. May take a warrior President to implement it though....."
ReplyDeleteIt's already happening and many in the opposition are furious about it. They think we should drill, baby, drill.
This report by the City of Palo Alto is quite instructive Update on the Development of a Business Plan for the Citywide Ultra High-Speed Broadband System Project and an Overview of Telecommunications Industry Market actors Affecting Municipal Broadband
ReplyDeleteQuote:
From the early planning stages, municipal broadband projects typically encounter strong opposition from the incumbent carriers, in addition to opposition from citizens and taxpayer groups that believe a municipality should not enter the ultra-competitive broadband business. Some municipal projects that began construction of their networks in the last few years were caught up in protracted litigation before the network build-out moved forward. Litigation or the threat of litigation was used as a scare tactic by the incumbent carriers to stall municipal competition, or as a ploy to create enough uncertainty to cause the municipality to shelve the project altogether.