This week a coalition of groups, including CWA, FTTH Council, TechNet, and the Information Technology Industry Council sent a letter to Congress repeating calls for a national broadband policy that delivers 10Mbps to everyone by 2010, and 100Mbps for everyone by 2015. This is the same call to action the groups made last year, and hasn't seen much traction since -- for a reason the group doesn't mention.

Last year, the council began their push for a "100Mbps Nation." This year, their hopeful call to arms focuses more specifically on the passage of two Congressional resolutions. Both Senate Resolution 191 and House resolution 1292 don't really create national broadband policies -- they simply set the framework to begin thinking about it. The companion bills are spearheaded by John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) and Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA), and do little more than set vague, national deployment goals:Every month or two seems to see a new group (like "Internet for Everyone") calling out for a national broadband policy, but no policy ever emerges. None of these groups take aim at the real reason their pushes perpetually fail. While theyr'e quick to identify problems with competition and penetration, they rarely identify the core disease when tracked down to the root: incumbent ISP lobbyist influence in Washington.

Perhaps groups calling out for a 100Mbps nation would be better served cleaning up the pay-to-play political system first, given all of these proposals are killed by incumbent ISP lobbyists long before they reach fruition. Why? Progressive proposals might force the nation's largest carriers to deploy services into more rural markets and/or bolster competition in the marketplace, both of which would significantly impact revenue.

If you think that the constant call to develop a national broadband policy in 2008 means that such a policy is inevitable, you're partly right. The nation's largest carriers, frightened of such calls, have joined forces to create something that vaguely looks like a national broadband policy, but really works to protect incumbent interests while keeping more progressive proposals at bay. Of course, "spotty 5Mbps for all" won't have quite the same ring.