First, Lev:
Kudos to the Cleveland Plain Dealer for its editorial today on Ohio’s disappointing broadband report card. A special call out to the analysis and more in depth report by Shaheen Samavatai of the Communication Workers of America’s commissioned research report called Speed Matters published two weeks ago.
The blogsphere reported it first. The National Press Club brought a panel together to discuss it and generated a powerpoint and a video. Each year, for the past 6 years the United States finds itself falling further and further behind on three key measures; (1) percentage of the population connected to true broadband (in which several studies show we’ve gone from 1st to around 20th), (2) the actual broadband speed available to the population in which we’ve gone from first to about 15th), and (3) the cost of access (in which,on average, consumers in the United States find themselves with among the very most expensive broadband access among the OECD countries). Without pulling punches we pay way too much for way too little and the result is that too few Americans have joined the broadband age. Indeed, in this country, more times than not, we find the debate being whether broadband is a “nice to have” or a “must have” infrastructure investment…
Next, Bill:
Today the Plain Dealer editorial page raps the Strickland Administration’s knuckles for slow motion on statewide broadband deployment, complaining that “Strickland has paid little attention to this once-prominent element of his campaign platform”.
But two months ago, that same editorial page was calling on the Ohio Senate to strip the phase one funding for the Governor’s Broadband Ohio strategy out of the budget, labeling the proposed $20 million setaside of Third Frontier funds “A money grab”.
Luckily, the Senate ignored the PD and left the S20 million in. So now the Governor has the funds he needs to integrate all the state’s optical fiber and other high-speed network assets into a single “NextGen” public network, and begin building that network out to parts of the state that lack “middle mile” backbone access, just as he promised in his campaign platform — using Third Frontier bond proceeds, just as he told the voters he would.
Despite the PD’s editorial effort to stop him.
Incidentally, the Communications Workers “study” featured in today’s editorial and a business page article Tuesday was a great PR stunt to push a mostly legitimate message, but it wouldn’t get the authors a passing grade in “Intro to Research Methods” at CSU. (Unless it proved the need for more tax abatements or a convention center, of course…)
What’s your opinion?
Along these lines, earlier in the week, I had a short conference call with Kathy Wallman, the chief organizer for the Coalition for Free Broadband Now. If you’re so inclined, there’s a petition there to let Congress and the FCC know we want free broadband.
