On 1/28/2013 4:57 PM, david peahi wrote:
and underscores the need for a national broadband buildout in the USA, funded and run by the Federal Government
Maybe Australia has a better track record... but over the past few decades, the US Federal government: (A) ...cannot do a darn thing without MASSIVE graft & corruption... plus massive overruns in costs... including a HEAVY dose of "crony capitalism" where, often, the companies who get the contracts are the ones who pad the wallets of the politicians in charge. About the ONLY thing the Feds do efficiently is write & mail checks. (B) In the US, we have this thing called the 4th amendment.... which ensures a certain level of freedom and civil liberties and privacy. Unfortunately, 4th amendment rights essentially disappear if the US Federal government owns and operates broadband access. Additionally, such ownership will then allow them to control/regulate the information... to ensure that information damaging to the incumbent politicians is minimized, especially close to election times. (as they did with campaign finance reform!) And their ability to "eavesdrop" increases exponentially, as legal and technical hurtles significantly lessen! (C) This allows them to do what the FCC ACTIVELY trying to do recently, but hasn't yet found a way. Ya think this is "conspiracy hysteria"? Again, look at aspects of campaign reform law, which limited certain ads close to election time in a manner which disproportionately benefits incumbents! Furthermore, when the Federal Government proposes atrocious things like the proposed "Disclose Act" (from just a few years ago), then you have to wonder about their true motivations. Here is an article written by 8 former FCC chairmen about the "Disclose Act": http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703460404575244772070710374.ht... ...can any sane person read that article... and then trust the US Federal Gov't motives with owning/operating vast amounts of Broadband? Finally, while I've witnessed incompetence amongst certain unnamed baby bells, there ARE... MANY... bright spots in Internet connectivity. Frankly, we're spoiled by our successes. And the worst of the baby bells, like all baby bells, do NOT have a monopoly. Often, they must compete with (at minimum) the local cable access provider. For example, in many areas that the baby bells failed to provide competent service, the local cable access provider filled the void, and did much better. I'm trying to not "name & shame"... but I've seen THAT... FIRST HAND. The market will eventually sort this out... and in many cases already has! Meanwhile, Amtrack and the Post Office show no signs of ever making it without their MASSIVE taxpayer subsidies. And the Department of Education continues to not know where billions of dollars goes each year... Yet, in contrast, Enron execs in are jail and Enron is no longer in existence. As I said, the free market tends to sort these things out over time. (especially when crony capitalism is NOT a part of the mix.) -- Rob McEwen http://dnsbl.invaluement.com/ rob@invaluement.com +1 (478) 475-9032