Internet Policy - Access

In an earlier post, I covered the issue of online piracy, which is its own online policy issue that many countries worldwide are trying to handle. Today, I'm going to focus on one issue that the US Congress and our own Ed Markey are trying to tackle, though the issue seems to end up on the backburner - highspeed access.

While this may come off as a pompous first world problem-type rant, simply getting online is no longer a luxury, but a necessity in so many industries, not to mention to succeed in school at any level (example: I'm currently writing a blog for a graduate course at Suffolk University. Can't exactly do that w/out being able to get online). Oh, and I've had 14.4 modem...and it was the pits.

Anyway, with Internet providers like Comcast and Fios controlling fees and Internet speeds, not to mention an essential duopoly on the market, Americans have pretty much been totally screwed. In 2010, the FCC finally decided to do something with the creation of the National Broadband Plan. One of the goals of the plan was to ensure that every American has access to broadband capability that is affordable. This is certainly a very lofty goal, but also a very necessary one. As a current Comcast customer, I'm very curious to know how they define "affordable." To Comcast, the word either doesn't exist, or is synonymous with bleeding customers dry, but maybe that's just me.

Another goal was to have the US lead the world in mobile innovation, with the fastest and most extensive wireless networks of any nation. At the launch of the National Broadband Plan, the US ranked 12th, according to data from Akamai. Pretty pathetic for a global super power. If the US is truly going to lead the world in innovation, it must provide its citizens with the best tools necessary, not the least of which is access to affordable highspeed internet.

So much business today is done online. We can't lead the world in much of anything when we're wasting time waiting for GoToMeeting to load because the connection is terrible. I'm highly skeptical that the FCC's plan will be a success, but at least it's something.