Broadband Baloney

BROADBAND BALONEY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Robert McDowell]
[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Robert McDowell writes that American consumers are poised to reap a windfall of benefits from a new wave of broadband deployment. But you would never know it by the rhetoric of those who would have us believe that the nation is falling behind, indeed in free fall. Looming over the horizon are heavy-handed government mandates setting arbitrary standards, speeds and build-out requirements that could favor some technologies over others, raise prices and degrade service. This would be a mistaken road to take -- although it would hardly be the first time in history that alarmists have ignored cold, hard facts in pursuit of bad policy. When it comes to broadband policy, let's put aside flawed studies and rankings, and reject the road of regulatory stagnation. In the next few years, we will witness a tremendous explosion of entrepreneurial brilliance in the broadband market, if the government doesn't micromanage. Belief in entrepreneurs and a light regulatory touch is the right broadband policy for America.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118524094434875755.html?mod=todays_us_op...
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* Are the numbers flawed? See http://www.freepress.net/docs/shooting_the_messenger.pdf