Broadband is the high-octane fuel of the new economy. Without it, small businesses remain small and the productivity growth in big businesses that has been behind much of the recent economic gains cannot go forward.
The U.S. should be the world’s leader in broadband networks, the high-speed Internet connections that transmit data. It isn’t.
America ranks 11 in the world in broadband penetration per capita, behind such high-tech powerhouses as … Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands.
If that’s not embarrassing, it should at least be sobering. Yes, many of those countries are ahead of the U.S. because their governments have subsidized broadband development. Nevertheless, the U.S has no excuse for falling behind.
The private sector is much more powerful than government programs and public-private partnerships. But that’s true only if the private sector isn’t shackled by regulation. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case with telecommunications broadband. It’s so laden with government rules that investment in telecommunications infrastructure is virtually stagnant. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was sold publicly as a means to increase competition, but it left enough regulation in place to discourage advancement.
So, one important question for the coming election is: which presidential candidate will download the broadband issue onto his platform and promise to blow open the industry with a deregulation plan?
President Bush has said that if he is re-elected, he will make universal broadband access a national priority by 2007. That echo you hear bouncing around is from the Kerry campaign saying much of the same thing. That’s important regardless of who wins in November, because Congress might be rewriting telecommunications law after the elections.
The country needs leadership that will release American innovation, not regulation that will subsidize favorites or try to manage its development.
Sharp, ambitious minds can create the finest communications network in the world. But innovative minds are no competition to overzealous regulators and politicians.