Be Bold

"Federal internet regulators wants your help coming up with the first ever, national broadband plan — which they must deliver to Congress next February. At stake are billions of dollars in government funds, the nation’s standing in world broadband rankings, the digital divides between rich-and-poor and town-and-country, and perhaps even the future of the U.S. economy.

President Barack Obama has called for the United States to become a leader again in internet access — now that the nation pitifully trails Europe, Japan and Korea in both speed and affordability."

To that end, Wired put together a letter containing some excellent suggestions, the most important of which is... Be Bold.

"For instance, many readers support a model where the internet’s pipes aren’t owned by ISPs anymore. They’d rather multiple companies be able rent the shared lines and compete on service, a model that has worked in Britain. Australia uses a version of that model to build a national fiber and wireless network that will serve all Australia." (This model also applies to Japan and Korea as well.)

"Others argued that cities that want to lay their own broadband should be allowed to do so, and the nation’s incumbent telecoms need to stop fighting them at the ballot box and in court:

“We need to stop giving these companies this freedom to stop or delay buildouts of municipal fiber networks. If I had enough money to fund UTOPIA in Salt Lake, I’d jump on it in a heartbeat but I know that I would be facing at least a 2 or 3 year battle in courts with Qwest and Comcast…. If they’re not going to take us on the path to true broadband access then these companies should step aside!”

Last but not least, the article points the way for us to make comments of our own by clicking here.

Who knows, perhaps the government might actually get this right with a little help from people like you and me because after all, the nation's future depends on it. :)