The Joke is on You, America!
July 9, 2009
I hope everyone enjoyed the Fourth of July weekend–the celebration of one of the more advanced countries (allegedly) in the world, technologically speaking.
The joke is on you America!
Just before the holiday weekend, the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) was issued by the Federal government to begin the process of building broadband infrastructure under the Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP). The NOFA is over 120 pages long – before you get to the actual application form to be released on July 7th.
So what’s the joke?
We finally have a definition of Broadband in America by our Government. Such high standards, goals and ambition – I am in awe! Let me quote from page 18 of the document:
“Broadband means providing two-way data transmission with advertised speeds of at least 768 kilobits (kbps) downstream and at least 200 kbps upstream to end users, or providing sufficient capacity in the middle mile project to support the provision of broadband services to end users.” (Yes, that is not a typo it is kilobits, akin to a step above dial-up. Not megabytes or gigabytes or petabytes or terabytes or exabytes… just kilobits.)
Those spineless, buggy whip wonders within the Beltway. When you use this as a data point, technically speaking, if you have a telephone on copper or a cable TV service you can be readily served. This places our penetration rates over 95%. A feel good country at a feel good moment in time … politicians can now claim what they have done to you – I mean for you.
Let’s see…Australia – going to 1 gigabit nationally in 4 years. South Korea ibid. Japan ibid. Tasmania ibid …. Need I go on?
America is ranked 17th in the world for Broadband access speeds and I am sure this will move us up the dial … Not.
We need to resurrect JFK from the dead; he understood vision and prosperity for America. We can gigabit America in less time than it took to put a man on the moon and at a fraction of the cost.
My favorite word selection in the above definition is; “advertised speeds.” That’s a beauty!
Happy 233rd Birthday America! At this rate, there is a comeback for the Telegraph and Pony Express — that would create jobs also!
The ponies are green.
Written by Dave Rusin - Telecom Executive
Posted by wbrache | Filed Under Telecom USA, Telecom bloggers, Telecom broadband, Telecom news, Telecommunications industry, Trends + telecommunications
(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ...Comments
One Response to “The Joke is on You, America!”
Got something to say?
Feeds
Dave,
Yeah I was struck by the irony of this when it was first released as well. I could not puzzle out why they had set the bar so low. I still don’t know, but today I read about Telekom Austria breaking the news that they are rolling out 100Mb/s over the next few years, with an eye to go Gigabit as well.
I just hope we’re not the last to reach that threshold…
Also, I’d like to hear your thoughts on the feasibility of building nationwide Gigabit infrastructure. Naturally it’s harder in a country as big as the US (versus Austria, roughly the size of Maine), but you indicated it could be done. Let’s think big!