PDXPLT
join:2003-12-04
Banks, OR
| reply to TKJunkMail
Re: Karl is right
said by TKJunkMail  :And NO to the suggestion that government must make it happen. Nonsense. Government always is essential to making it happen. Government provides a monetary system, so that value can be easily exchanged. Government enforces the rule of law (or is supposed to), so that contracts can be enforced (which makes entities willing to enter into contracts in the first place). Government controls access to resources owned by the American people that are needed by businesses (e.g., radio spectrum). In short, government sets the ground rules and provides the playing field and the tools in which competition takes place. It can do it badly, or do it well.
Now, as some have argued here, perhaps broadband isn't really very important. It's useful to provide access to porn, to allow college students to steal music, and not much else. It's not much more than a frivolous luxury. If that's the case, then BB policy isn't very important. If the only criteria used to set the rules is that which maximizes value to ISP shareholders, fine.
However, U.S. government policy, as defined by Congress in the 1996 Telecomm Act, says something different. Broadband is considered such a driver of growth and so imprtant to citizens, that it is U.S. policy that it made available to all, in a timely manner and at reasonable cost. Specifically, the FCC was tasked with seeing to it that this happens, and with tweaking the playing field to deal with any instances where market failure prevents that goal from being acheived for certain portions of the citizenry. |
