The Candidates on Broadband

Today’s post is looong – but I tried to look into the broadband views and records of the final four candidates…

I was disheartened last week to read a report saying the not even a tech-leaning crowd seemed to think that broadband was a notable issue. But I am picked up a bit this week after hearing that FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein and FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz both emphatically told a crowd of Lawyers this week that the US is falling behind and if “this country wants to retain its technological pre-eminence in the world, it needs to get behind a national policy that emphasizes ubiquitous, low-cost broadband connectivity.”

As the scope of candidates narrows I’ve decided it’s time again to look at the candidates left standing and their views on broadband. (Not to make anyone jealous but living in Ireland I have not seen one campaign ad!)

Broadband Access not a Hot Topic with Voters

EETimes is the “global news for the creators of technology”. They have been running a survey on their top issues for the election. While the pool of pollsters was small (560 respondents), the outlook for broadband was not high:

1. 56 percent said the economy was the most important of nine business and tech issues
2. 18 percent chose immigration
3. 14 percent said energy
4. 1 percent said broadband policy

Unfortunately this is a crowd that I thought would be predisposed to lean towards technology – but apparently not. I can understand people worrying about the economy but I don’t understand where EETimes readers would not make the connection between broadband access and the economy.

Auction Off Naming Rights for the Internet

Thanks to the Baller List, I ran across a great article on the political state of broadband in the US. – particularly rural US (Carlini’s Comments, MidwestBusiness.com’s)

His first paragraph says it all, “Where are the hot discussions about broadband deployment and regional economic sustainability in the presidential debates?”

Most of the candidates do have tech policies or statement and they are ably tracked by the folks at the WCA but none of the policies are particularly meaty. Well, maybe it’s more fair to say that none of them are very specific.

Carlini suggested adopting California’s “One Gigabit or Bust” [by 2010] goal, which sounds pretty good. He also suggests firing most of the FCC because they have lost touch with what’s required in the global economy to keep up with the rest of the world.

He suggests that the money that incumbent carriers give to the elections and lobbyists would be better spent upgrading their infrastructure, which I think is very true – but generally the case in any industry that spends so much money on politics.

Carlini also adds that, “There needs to be some serious investigation on why we have slipped so far into the digital desert where all levels of economic strata have been affected and not just those in the digital divide.” This I think is also very true for in some ways broadband might be the canary in the coalmine. If we’re slipping here, you know we’re slipping in other areas. This is also one area where I think we could regain some lost ground quickly if, as Carlini points out, people started paying attention and candidates starting pushing forward on the issue.

The final point that Carlini makes that I think it so astute is that we need to build broadband for tomorrow and not for today. “You don’t put enough in the ground for growth for only two years. You put into the ground enough so you do not have to retrench for 20 years.” That too is a truism across sectors. Too often I see that we’re building broadband or bridges for today. We seem unwilling to invest in required maintenance – we’d rather build a new road. Cynically I think it’s because no one is ever going to rename a road after the person who maintained it – but there is a chance with a new road. Broadband is even worse – we don’t name the infrastructure. The backbone is the backbone – it’s not AT&T’s OC12 or President Bush’s fiber ring. Maybe that’s the idea we need — we could auction off the naming rights for the Internet to get the funds required to build it up. It seems to work for stadiums.

Obama on Broadband – Google with Candidates

Wired Magazine just posted an article (Obama Woos Silicon Valley) on Barack Obama’s technology published ahead of his visit to Google in California. (Apparently Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas have all made visits.)

Here’s a quick list of the items in his policy:

Hillary Clinton’s Broadband Strategy

Yesterday Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton talked about her broadband strategy. Actually she talked about her strategy to create jobs and spur economic growth – bit it included a broadband strategy.

Here is what she said specifically as posted on her blog:

[1] Establish a national broadband strategy called Connect America. Hillary will strengthen tax incentives for extending broadband to underserved areas. She will support state and local broadband initiatives, from new wireless technologies to high-speed fiber optics. And she will change the FCC rules so we that we finally have an accurate, detailed picture of broadband deployment and penetration rates. At present, the FCC data is unreliable because it is based on loose estimates and outdated standards. Hillary will also create a new public private partnership, modeled on the successful ConnectKentucky program which has dramatically improved broadband access. The initiative has stimulated significant private investment and has increased the state’s broadband coverage rate to over 90%.

I dug in a little deeper into her site to see what she meant by supporting state and local initiative and was happy to see that, “She also proposes financial support for state and local broadband initiatives.” Support without financial backing isn’t always the kind of support we need.

WCA Tracks Candidate’s Comments on Broadband

The folks at  the Wireless Communications Association International were good enough to send me an update on their recent survey that revaled that 6 of the 17 Presidential candidates have announced a broadband policy while at least another 6 have yet to make any statements on broadband.

WCA has created a web site that tracks candidates’ comments and policies related to broadband. You can track new by topic, party, or candidate. (

Chattanooga to vote on FTTH

Thanks to Christopher Mitchell at Institute for Local Self-Reliance for giving me the head up on Chattanooga’s upcoming vote on FTTH. I know Tennessee is a long way from Minnesota (and seems to be getting farther as the season change) but I thought it might be interesting to take a look at their current situation.

According to the Chattanoogan, Chattanooga Electric Power Board (EPB) announced in August their board approved a Fiber to the Home (FTTH) initiative.

Apparently EPB already offers Internet and phone service. The FTTH project will allow them to offer triple play services (Internet, phone, cable/video). The cost is estimated at $200 million and it will take about three years to build 2,000 miles of fiber to serve 80 percent of its customers. The plan is to recoup investment through income generated from the system.

To get approval EPB needed to apply to the state comptroller’s office. After that, the board must vote again on whether to go forward, and then schedule a period for public comments. The board would then vote again. Then the city council could vote the idea up or down, or decide to hold a referendum in which citizens would decide on whether EPB should be authorized to move forward.

Sidebar: There’s an interesting blog post from Chattanooga on this topic (Fiber To The Home or EPB vs. Comcast). The author “selfishly” wants fiber but questions the municipal connection – interesting reading and interesting comments.

Sidebar 2: Kathy Harriman from EPB is the Chair Person for the FTTH Council – just interesting to note. I think every great effort takes a few motivated leaders. Maybe Ms Harriman is it here.

Fast forward to today-ish; there is a vote scheduled for the Chattanooga’s City Council.

The Chattanooga Free Press reported earlier this month (Public supports EPB fiber proposal) “an overwhelming majority of participants expressed support for EPB’s proposed fiber-optic initiative.” It sounds as if most people were enthusiastic, although concern came from the Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association (Comcast is a member). They were worried that such a great investment might lead to great losses.

The Chattanooga Free Press reported last week that (Tech companies give input on EPB fiber-optic plan)  EPB recently hosted a lunch for tech companies to ask questions and offer feedback. (They had note cards for feedback that EPB would pass on to the City Council.) Many people were in favor of the plan; some were less enthusiastic about the potential issues of government infringing on competition. I have to say that I think holding the meeting (and getting press coverage) was genius! A great way to get the tech community invested and spread the word to the general public.

So the vote is next week. I’ll try to keep an eye on it. It sounds like the odds are good. This week’s vote in Monticello was a slam dunk. It will be interesting to see if this one is too.

Monticello City Referendum for the Telephone Exchange PASSED!

Yesterday the City of Monticello voted on whether or not to construct a citywide fiber optic network that would provide Internet, cable and telephone services.

Well the votes are in - and it passed 1,055 to 354. You can learn more (including a very interesting Q & A on marketing against the referendum) on the Monticello Fiber web site.

WCA Tracks the Candidates on Broadband

WCA has created a web site that is the “go-to resource for comments by – and comparisons between – top U.S. policymakers regarding the pace and benefits of broadband deployments.”

They give nice broadband profiles for everyone and you can comment. The profiles include what they say and (more importantly) what they’d done in terms of broadband in the past.

They track the campaigns and post any news that is broaband-related and they track individual issues including:

Rural Broadband Deployment
Interoperability
Net Neutrality
Applications in Education
Applications in Military

On an only semi-related note. The WCA Annual Conference is happening now. The line up looks great - if only it were happening in Minnesota. I’ll be sure to check back with them next week to see if they will be posting notes or presentations online.

America’s First TechPresident

I don’t remember where I started but today I fell into a new (to me) blog today called Personal Democracy Forum. They write about how technology is changing politics.

First I love how they keep a running commentary on what the Presidential candidates are doing on the Internet and who’s doing it best. As of yesterday Ron Paul seemed to be getting a lot of attention. I have a friend who is a big Ron Paul supporter and I seem to get a YouTube video a day via email on the guy – so I have to agree with the blog – he is certainly hitting a stride online.

Second I love the tracking of lots of Web 2.0 applications: