Kerry chides Bush administration on broadband

[brooklynite]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry accused the Bush administration on Tuesday of falling behind in its goal to make high-speed Internet service, known as broadband, universally available by 2007.

The Massachusetts Democrat said the Federal Communications Commission was holding up action that would allow companies to use extra airwaves in between television channels that were not being utilized.

During the 2004 presidential campaign, U.S. President George W. Bush set a target date of 2007 for making affordable high-speed Internet service universally available. Since then, he has not discussed the goal in detail.

"Despite the president's promise of ubiquitous broadband by 2007, we are clearly, now well into 2006, short of that goal," Kerry said at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing. "Only 40 percent of households in America have it."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060315/pl_nm/congress_broadband_dc
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Be that as it may, this is a "sleeper" issue (as in, putting people to sleep); if Kerry has aspirations for 2008, he'll need to come up with tougher messages.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Here's a geekish thread on the subject...

On a geekish site. The thread is overrun with frothing buttheads of the right. Go have some fun with them. I did.

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/72774

[Geo55]

2. what ? ya think chimpy wants folks to see stuff like

THIS

[globalvillage]

3. I expect this was an appropriate statement to make

during a commerce committee hearing on wireless issues and spectrum reform.

Not a really exciting topic for most, but some hearings don't lend themselves to tough messages. Still, important work for the senate.

[AnnieBW]

4. It May Not Matter Too Much

To non-techies. But I'm at a technical conference for Voice over IP (Vonage, Skype, etc) and they're really concerned about this. Ubiquitous broadband is one of the big issues in the technical community, along with net neutrality.

[NVMojo]

5. WAKE UP, Folks! This is a serious issue if you want to continue

your leisurely internet browsing or online activism!

[rodeodance]

6. seems important to me. Thanks Kerry

[fujiyama]

7. Does he only have to

speak about some hot button controversial, attention getting issues?

A lot of government work sounds mundane and "wonkish" but is very important.

The US is falling behind in technology education and we can all just blame outsourcing, but our technology infrastructure is suffering as well. I'm glad Kerry is addressing this as well as other issues. Nations like South Korea have much more broadband connectivity.

[Javaman]

8. You know, in morons* defence, he can only work on one of the

"internets" at a time...

:rofl:

[AnnieBW]

9. MIT - CMU Joint Study

At the tech conference that I'm attending, someone this morning brought up WHY broadband is important. There was a joint study done by M.I.T and Carnegie-Mellon University that was released last year proving that the more a country expands broadband Internet access, the more economic growth follows, especially in the high-tech sector. France, Germany, the Netherlands, India, South Korea, and Japan are all building out fiber-optic networks to the home. If we want to keep up our high-tech sector, and not outsource it to India and China in the future, we need to expand access to broadband.

The problem that a lot of companies face is not regulation as much as setting up broadband networks to rural areas. Places like Wyoming, that only have 100,000 people (not counting Deadeye Dick and his wife) and a whole lot of dead space.

There's a group here that's pushing a "net neutrality" petition that they want to deliver to Congress. I'll get their URL and post it here.

[heirs_of_liberty]

10. Like building the Interstate Highway

You don't sit around and wait for private investors to build the infrastructure for you, when they are just concerned with their own bottom lines. But this issue is as old as the railways and rural telephony. I think it involves economies of scale.

I rather think Americans should be far far more outraged at the organized gambling for profit health care Casino's they are forced to live and die under the tyranny of.