I had to share this -- it is a post on an e-mail list from cybertelecom.org:

When the 21st Century Communications history is written, it will be shown that Michael Powell did MORE for the advancement of disruptive unlicensed wireless broadband than all the FCC staff, other 4 Commissioners, Congresspersons, and Telco Lobbyists combined. Its all now in the hands of the techno-luddites, greedy and dying Telcos, clueless lawyers both inside and outside the FCC, and politics-driven remaining Commissioners.  And thus the muscle-bound Regulatory Gods  will complete  the Communications Revolution the RBOCs started. So instead of a technical, economic, regulatory solution led by the United States that digital wireless promised in the first place starting with the 1984 Report and Order authorizing spread spectrum it in the ISM bands the REST of the world will run with the digital wireless we developed and whip our ass globally in extending broadband connectivity for their entire populations. We will be adopting and buying THEIR solutions within 5-7 more years, instead of selling it to them.

You think Martin or the other Stooges are going to be its savior? Woo Hoo yourself.

Frankly I didn't and still don't give a tinkers damn about the FCC issues Powell was accused of messing up. 25 years from now NONE of those issues will mean anything significant.

Dave Hughes
Dave(at)oldcolo.com

I have one major fear about our current administration and that is that they don't care about technology. I mean Bush, not the FCC. We used to have Al Gore preaching "information superhighway" and "I invented the Internet." We laughed and made fun of Gore for this -- and he has joked about some of his comments as well.

I got the feeling that broadband was a national priority under Clinton/Gore. I do worry that we will lose our technology edge. We graduate fewer engineers than many of our competitors. Visa limitations make it more difficult than ever for the truly gifted minds to come to America to study or get jobs and finally, our trade imbalance means we have ever-less money to invest in new technology versus other countries such as China and India.

Common sense tells us that if we don't make broadband a priority in the US, we will just get squashed by India, China or the two of them working together.

When our president makes a state of the union address and steroids in baseball* gets mentioned and 100 megabits to every home doesn't, you have to start to worry.

True broadband competition will never mean having two competitors, ILECs and Cable. I don't see power line technology changing this in the short term and where WiMAX stands is unclear.

Dear politicians. We need broadband competition and we need it now.

*Disclaimer: The author does not condone the use of steroids in sports.