[RTC List] Broadband access policy case

[William Van Hefner]

I really don't see the connection here. Having been employed in the
telecom industry for the past 15+ years, I can tell you for a fact that
there is definitely no "internet shortage" in this country. Places like
Humboldt County are in the minority. In most parts of the country there is
a glut of unused "dark fiber". This is due to a massive overbuild of fiber
during the late 90's and early 2000's. That construction largely ceased
when the dot com bubble burst. The capacity is still sitting there
underground waiting to be lit up though.

Just look at the price consumers are paying for broadband compared to
10-15 years ago. For $19 a month these days, you can get download speeds
of up to 1 MBps. When I started computing, access to the internet was
around $1 per minute, and you could only access it via a 14.4KBps modem!
Similarly, long distance telephone service (which used to use fiber) was
selling for about 17-20 cents per minute. Now, you can get wholesale rates
of less than 1 cent per minute. Retail prices are closer to 3 cents per
minute.

IMHO, the only way that the U.S. lags the rest of the world is when it
comes to how it is distributed. The USA is just way, way too physically
large a country to ever have it be cost effective to bring broadband
everywhere, such as in South Korea and Japan, where people live in sardine
cans. Personally, I'm fine with the amount of bandwidth I need for my own
business purposes. The question is, if I want more, am I willing to
sacrifice the quality of life that I have here for some overcrowded urban
wasteland with more options for faster internet.



William Van Hefner
President

Vantek Communications, Inc.
e-mail: van at humboldtonline.com


On Fri, June 6, 2008 7:41 am, Sean McLaughlin wrote:
>

> The Cure for America's Internet
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/the-cure-for-americas-int_b_10
> 4963.html>
>
>
>
> by Tim Karr in Huffington Post
>
> http://tinyurl.com/46nvfl
>
>
> --
>
>
> excerpt:
>
>
>
> "When President Eisenhower set Amer-
> icans to work building the nations' Inter- state Highway System he
> mobilized members of Congress from both sides of the aisle to appropriate
> federal funds and create corporate incentives for the construction of
> 41,000 miles of new
> roads.  It was the largest infrastructure project in American history to
> that point, but the $25 billion in federal money set aside to build the
> nations main arteries yielded an almost immediate return to our nation's
> economy.
>
> The construction of a universally access-
> ible Internet superhighway ranks as important today, and it can be accomp-
> lished with even stronger collaboration between the public and private
> sector.
>
> Future policymakers who are serious
> about America's well-being should learn from our failings and from success
> in other countries so we can deliver the vast benefits of an open
> connection to every American.  It's time we started construction."
>
>
>
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>