Samuel J. Palmisano: Fix the Bridges But Don't Forget Broadband - WSJ.com
I'm not much of a believer in government, but I know that Democrats are. How about trying an experiment. If government "investment" is good, how about investing in something that the vast majority of us might like, is generally environmentally friendly (more than roads at least) and gives us a significant chance of serendipitous positive leverage for the future?
How about 100Mbit broadband to every home and 4G cellular across the entire nation? This would seem to be MUCH simpler than taking on medical care, but if it could be pulled off successfully, maybe THEN we could start doing some federal (or even state) nibbling at the massive health care behemoth.
How? I'd be open to a number of options, but I'd say we essentially make 100Mbit of broadband "a right" -- since it is going into every home, there ought to be some economies of scale, so it ought to be pretty cheap to pay for. With that much bandwidth, only one pipe is needed -- phone, TV, internet. We can decide if we have the technology so Satellite services can play or not.
I believe in "flat" so something like $50 a month in today's dollars for your wired digital services per month, and maybe another $30 for cellular? I'm sure there is plenty of room for massive fights about the particulars, but that is OK -- fighting over something that many of us at least more or less understand is much better than fighting over something that very very few have any clue on.
I'm not much of a believer in government, but I know that Democrats are. How about trying an experiment. If government "investment" is good, how about investing in something that the vast majority of us might like, is generally environmentally friendly (more than roads at least) and gives us a significant chance of serendipitous positive leverage for the future?
How about 100Mbit broadband to every home and 4G cellular across the entire nation? This would seem to be MUCH simpler than taking on medical care, but if it could be pulled off successfully, maybe THEN we could start doing some federal (or even state) nibbling at the massive health care behemoth.
How? I'd be open to a number of options, but I'd say we essentially make 100Mbit of broadband "a right" -- since it is going into every home, there ought to be some economies of scale, so it ought to be pretty cheap to pay for. With that much bandwidth, only one pipe is needed -- phone, TV, internet. We can decide if we have the technology so Satellite services can play or not.
I believe in "flat" so something like $50 a month in today's dollars for your wired digital services per month, and maybe another $30 for cellular? I'm sure there is plenty of room for massive fights about the particulars, but that is OK -- fighting over something that many of us at least more or less understand is much better than fighting over something that very very few have any clue on.
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