Out of My Mind

I guess it is all Clinton's fault. A Republican congress passes a God-awful telecom bill meant tp pass $$ top those industries within the sector that persuasively made their needs known to Senate chair Larry Pressler, that is, the sources of the most contributions were appropriately rewarded.

You could call it simple bribery but that's actionable in the modern era (i.e. a fact-based accusation against a public figure is, against all applicable law, nonetheless actionable). So I won't. Still, it's all historical fact, so you can look it up yourself.

But I digress.

Point is, actual needs of the nation were never an issue. Or never considered.

So here:

We thought you said spend the $200 billion on "dark fiber"

The United States is the 19th ranked nation in household broadband connectivity rate, just ahead of Slovenia. Want to know why? Because, contends telecom analyst Bruce Kushnick, the Bell Companies never delivered symmetrical fiber-optic connectivity to millions of Americans though they were paid more than $200 billion to do it. According to Kushnick's book, "$200 Billion Broadband Scandal", during the buildup to the 1996 Telecommunications Reform Act, the major U.S. telcos promised to deliver fiber to 86 million households by 2006 (we're talking about fiber to the home, here). They asked for, and were given, some $200 billion in tax cuts and other incentives to pay for it. But the Bells didn't spend that money on fiber upgrades -- they spent it on long distance, wireless and inferior DSL services. Some headlines from Kushnick's work:

• By 2006, 86 million households should have been rewired with a fiber optic wire, capable of 45 Mbps, in both directions.
  
• The public subsidies for infrastructure were pocketed. The phone companies collected over $200 billion in higher phone rates and tax perks, about $2000 per household.
  
• The World is Laughing at US. Korea and Japan have 100 Mbps services as standard, and America could have been Number One had the phone companies actually delivered. Instead, we are 16th in broadband and falling in technology dominance.
  

A damning list of indictments, and one that puts the telcos' demands for a two-tiered Internet in harsh perspective (see " 'Course what we'd really like to do is 'prioritize' some of these services right out of business ..." and "Interesting approach, Bill; why don't you try it on your phone network first?"). We paid an estimated $2000 per household for fiber to the home and instead got DSL over the old copper wiring. As Kushnick notes, that's like ordering a Ferrari and getting a bicycle. The Bells should be ashamed. And held accountable.

Posted by John Paczkowski on 05:51 AM

It's Clinton's fault because he didn't veto the wretched bill. Because, you know, if he had, the nutjobs would have respected the veto and not override it but instead draft a good bill.

Right.