FCC, Verizon: Rejoice over your broadband connection

FCC, VERIZON: REJOICE OVER YOUR BROADBAND CONNECTION
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh]
[Commentary] Unhappy with your broadband connection? You're not focusing enough on the positives, telecommunications companies and a member of the Federal Communications Commission suggested on Monday. Tom Tauke, Verizon's executive vice president for public affairs, policy and communications, said the United States has seen a "tremendous deployment of broadband and wireless" in a remarkably short time. "Just a few years ago we were talking about trying to get DSL services and cable modem services to 20 or 25 percent of the country," Tauke said during a panel discussion at this year's Aspen Summit organized by the Progress and Freedom Foundation. "Now we have 51 percent of the households in this country, who not only have access to--but have purchased--broadband services." Joseph Waz, a Comcast vice president and public policy counsel, said that "by the end of this year, Comcast will be America's fourth largest telephone company"--and by the end of next year, it'll be the third largest. Commissioner Robert McDowell, part of the FCC's Republican majority, was equally enthusiastic. "We have more competition among differing platforms than any country in the world," he said, with cable modem service, for instance, available to something like 92 percent of Americans.
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