Verizon & AT&T Defend 'Anti-Tech' Positions → I am soooo against government ...

...interfering in private enterprise it pains me to say this, but,

BROADBAND NEEDS TO BE BUILT OUT JUST LIKE THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM. CLEARLY THE ECONOMICS AREN'T THERE FOR PRIVATE ENTERPRISE TO DO THE JOB.

It's going to have to be done by the public sector to get us 100% coverage at acceptable connection speed.

We have no choice.

Joe

Is that why we are always stuck in traffic every day on the Interstate? Why doesn't the government fix that?

you absolutely, positively hit the nail on the head. Much as I hate the cable and phone companies, these guys are doing what their investors want them to do - maximize profit. The investors could care less about broadband speeds or prices or comprehensive coverage, they just want to make as much money as they can.

If our government is too corrupt or lazy or ideological to properly regulate these industries to ensure competition (which in turn should bring reasonable prices, faster speeds and full coverage), then the government itself should ensure it gets done.

these industries have set the U.S. back several years in the broadband revolution and if something isn't done soon we will get so far behind we'll never crawl out of the hole they have created.

I also might add it's not that the economics aren't there, it's that these corporations don't give a sh1t about their customers and are only interested in extracting maximum revenue from their customer base and there is no competition to temper that.

they are - they are selling road systems to private industry so they can turn them into toll roads. that will keep the riff-raff off the roads and they won't be so crowded.

I've never liked this idea. Roads are a public resource, and a toll, while it is an entirely logical and fair way of funding a road, is in essence a regressive tax if you have someone who is low income who has to use the toll road every day.

My argument is that the government could do a better job of improving capacity on highways, but it chooses not to. And while there are a few things that government can and should do, and does well, providing internet service is not going to be one of them.

Fact is, though, private enterprise could NOT build a better road system either and you would have the same gridlock.

Gridlock comes from two sources - idiots and design. The idiot part is self explanatory - some guy tail gating slams on his brakes causing a chain reaction that eventually results in backups, etc. etc.

As to design, done mostly by PRIVATE companies, the problem is not that the design is bad, but that the design and construction are ALWAYS behind the traffic flow. There's an interchange near here that, when construction started, the specs were just fine. However, in the time since the construction started, traffic patterns have changed and the problem is back. Road construction, no matter who does it, is ALWAYS behind the traffic patterns it is looking to correct/improve.

The gov't chooses not to increase road capacity because no one wants to pay for it. Some of this is philosophical (starve the beast), some of it is lack of resources (the poor), and some of it is greed (I'm not paying for someone else). Believe me, if the majority of citizens would pay for more roads, more would get built, with better maintenance.

Just like here in Portland Oregon where their is a major bottle neck because I-5 is just two lanes each way for over 40 years. The problem is any transportation money was diverted for Light rail and trains than road. I can see the same thing happens with broadband.

The same thing with broadband if we let government regulated it. Either we end up killing or inhibiting growth with the telecoms with regulation or brodband will lose out to other liberal int rest and entitlements. Ie the universal heath care advoicates and the public service unions.

I totally disagree. You *notice* when that happens.

When you get in a car accident you say 'man, if i was only 10 seconds later'. How many times were you 10 seconds later and just didn't know it?

I'm very frustrated with broadband. I'm 5 miles from the expressway, meijer, walmart, home depot, mc sports, abc warehouse, and many smaller places. I can't get JACK. I'd pay $50/mo. for 1.5M DSL. I can't. I'm 2 miles from cable and 7 miles from the CO. I'm screwed for probably at least 10 years. They won't deploy.

I'm against the government being an ISP, I would like to see them provide the physical connections. Kind of like UTOPIA does in Utah. They provide the physical infrastructure, but leave it up to others to provide the service.

This would be like the road system. The roads are built and maintained by the government but who uses them and how often are up to the individuals.

It is not possible to improve highways capacity at will without wasting a lot of money (Big Dig comes to mind). But I don't know why there are no bullet trains for commuters in NYC Metropolitan Area. They are good investment especially when oil costs $100 per barrel. And I think it would generate a real estate boom in PA and south NJ. And it won't be money loosing enterprise like Amtrak, because it is for commuters. Of course, it is not so interesting as stadiums.

there's the amtrak acela, it's kinda like a bullet train. the problem is that they charge what it would cost to fly to your destination in order to ride it.

We are stuck in traffic everyday because of idiot drivers and not a lack of a great interstate system. Wrecks and people driving with a cell phone stuck to their head cause traffic slowdowns.

I think it's time for the government to nationalize broadband and get rid of the greedy corps that are strangling its growth.

Most of the interstates are relatively clear, it's just at the huge population centers ( DC, NY, LA, San Fran, etc) where the "interstates" are congested. And yes, the gov't is trying to fix those problem points. That's what mass transit is for. Then interstate highway system work very well. I've driven over much of it, and it's great!

That's their job. Their franchise is to make money from the funds put forth by the investors. Nowhere is it written that things need be done by privately owned entities for the "good of the people." Free enterprise / capitalistic system and all that. I love and respect it.

If you run a hot dog stand in Rockville Maryland is it your responsibility to deliver hot dogs to Bowie Maryland even if you loose money doing so?

I'm only suggesting that there are projects of such magnitude and of such obvious benefit to the country that we need to do them as public sector projects. Not a federal ISP rather the electronic equivalent of a Department of Transportation who is in charge of keeping the highways open and useful.

Couldn't cost as much as the highways. Only now I'm afraid there is so much petty self interest in government that it could never be accomplished. Look what happened with San Francisco's free wi-fi. The dumb ass board of supervisors tried to make it a social experiment instead of a computer network connection.

Ahh well....

This is very popular in Orange County California. There are a few private toll roads with ever changing tolls based on the time of day.

You nailed it. Politicians like privatizing public assets because

a) they get the money now and bugger the folks who will be paying for it for the next 99 years.

b) It doesn't cost them anything to sell an asset the taxpayers paid for.

c) They can claim they aren't raising taxes to maintain a public asset.

government is only as competent as the people that run it.

nuff said

I'm not sure he mentioned providing internet service... I think he meant build out the fiber infrustructure. Let AT&T/Verizon/CLEC #123 provide the service.

high speed doesnt work well for short hops it takes time to get to speed and even more time to stop that much mass

inter-city like Acela works but with airlines like Southwest its just cheaper to fly

Then you obviously have not seen malfunction junction just slightly north of Dayton, Ohio or saw the old insipid design of the I70/75 interchange a bit farther north of Dayton...

while inattentiveness does cause problems - PLENTY of stupid designs caused many, many accidents before cell phones even existed.

Talk about memories. I grew up in Trotwood & back in High School (Class of '85 kickin' it Live) we used to go all through those intersections on our way to various locales in Mid-South Ohio (not to mention all the trouble we got into in Richmond, hehe)

If all those office workers had a fiber optic internet connection they could easily do all their work from home and voila! Your highness has the road all to himself again.

Most US cities have connectivity that makes working from home possible.