Internet Access Stimulus

According to the WSJ, " The federal government's economic stimulus package will include investment in broadband Internet infrastructure and funds to upgrade and repair the national power grid alongside more traditional funding for road and bridge repair, a senior aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday."

It's much needed, since Clearwire/XOHM has decided to slow down (cough!*) its deployment schedule because the $3.2B in cash from Google, Intel, and MSO's, just is not enough to roll out their whole network. Clearwire needs $2B more.

And apparently, VZ only wants to over-build its affluent DSL areas with FiOS. It ignores or sells off rural routes.

TWC and AT&T are moving to tiered broadband pricing plans. Heck, TWC is even raising its rates on stand-alone Internet. TWC is also vulnerable to customer switching. In recent bundles from former BellSouth, I did not see a DSL price under $30. What happened to Naked DSL at $20 and DSL Lite at $10 (merger conditions)?

The next ones to ask for a bail-out will be the wholesale Internet backbone companies like Level3, Cogent, Global Crossing, Qwest and Savvis, according to this report on Circle ID.

According to the CWA (telecom union), it's all about new jobs.

Mr. Cohen said 100,000 jobs could be created by immediately investing in more high-speed Internet networks across the country. "Jobs is the best single stimulus," he said.  The demand for services created by broadband Internet access could create another two million jobs, Mr. Cohen argued.

[Editorial note: * As if Clearwire had an aggressive roll out strategy. $3.2B should be enough IF you actual bring in profitable revenue per tower. I know, not a usual business plan for public internet companies.]