“More bandwidth than you can use? €? reads a headline in the May 30 issue of Business Week. “Impossible €? is my short answer.
Speaking as the head of policy for USTelecom, I chuckled at the part in the article where it questioned whether consumers would ever need 100Mbps of bandwidth! Kind of reminds me of that old Bill Gates quote about no one ever needing a PC with more than 640 KB of RAM. I wonder how many times Mr. Gates has reflected on that comment and smiled to himself.
But as you read further, the article makes strong arguments in favor of juiced-up pipes €” citing consumers need for speed as HDTV, online gaming, and video phone calls turn most U.S. households into bandwidth hogs. No argument there.
The article then cites some of the future apps associated with broadband like remotely turning on and off lights and appliances. True, but what about the good stuff?
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By Jeff Dircksen, Director of Congressional Analysis for the National Taxpayers Union and Foundation.
Well, at least he liked my tie. If you had a chance to catch Wednesday’s Senate Commerce Committee meeting, you would have heard Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and me discussing my taste in neckwear and its potential tax implications. The topic of the hearing was not trends in men’s fashion but instead communications, taxation, and federalism. My full testimony may be viewed here.
As most people who follow telecom issues know, the federal Internet tax moratorium is set to expire Nov. 1st of this year. The moratorium is what keeps most states from imposing fees and taxes on Internet access.
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The Internet has revolutionized every part of our lives — from telecommuting to refilling prescriptions to reserving books at the library.
And Kentucky is doing its part to make sure that its citizens enjoy the life changing applications associated with high-speed broadband networks. In 2004, Kentucky charged the non-profit organization ConnectKentucky with bringing broadband to every home in the state by the end of 2007. A tough challenge? You bet. But Kentucky now stands at 93% availability €”up from 60% when they started in late 2004. That phenomenal growth comes thanks to private sector investments and private-public partnerships.
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Catching up on my reading, and as a Virginia resident (okay, Northern Virginia) this story on CWA’s blog, SpeedMatters, caught my eye.
Turns out the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative and the Commonwealth of Virginia are investing $19 million to build a fiber-optic backbone to give rural businesses a chance to grow and compete online. Virginia is following up with a study to see what happens in terms of business and jobs after they expand broadband access.
I’m guessing they’ll find that more broadband access leads to a significant increase in the productivity, competitiveness and profitability of the state’s rural small businesses.
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Southeast Missourian
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Today, I testified before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce regarding broadband deployment — particularly to under-served and unserved areas — and the nation’s inventory of existing broadband service.
There is growing bi-partisan consensus on the importance of broadband investment, deployment, access and adoption. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Innovation Agenda and the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force both identify broadband deployment as a key national objective.
I told the House committee that I fully support their initiative to create a map to illustrate where Americans have access to advanced communications services and where they do not. This legislation - the proposed Broadband Census of America Act of 2007 - is aimed at pinpointing those areas. It’s a practical way to identify where resources need to be targeted.
In my testimony, I offered suggestions to the Committee on ways to accomplish this goal. These suggestions include:
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Subcommittee On Telecommunications And The Internet
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Internet Business Law Services
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Part of what I’m hoping to do with this blog is to make people aware of some of the great information out there about broadband and broadband issues.
One great example is the March 2007 “Economists’ Statement on Network Neutrality Policy” signed by 16 economists of the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies.
This is a concise and very readable study on a subject that, much too often, is obscured rather than clarified.
The economists could not be more clear. For example, here is their one-sentence summary: “Our basic concern is that most proposals aimed at implementing net neutrality are likely to do more harm than good.”
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Bangor Daily News (Maine)
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