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The railroad was the original death of distance. It became a defining force that enabled the economics of scope and scale to define the 19th and 20th centuries. As a result it destroyed the distributed subsistence economies that had existed since the beginning of time.
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Chicago is known as the “Second City,” but why? The moniker is a remnant of the 19th century when the railroad made Chicago the second most important city in the country in terms of transportation, culture and finance. But it hadn’t always been that way. At the beginning of the 19th century St. Louis was the great city of the west, the Gateway City. Chicago was an upstart afterthought. St. Louis, however, was situated on the west bank of the Mississippi, the wrong side from the railroads that connected to the markets in the east. In part because of the shortsightedness of the boatmen who ferried cargo across the river, the town fathers refused to build a railroad bridge across the Big Muddy to connect with the rail lines heading east.
Chicago’s leaders, on the other hand, aggressively pushed for rail connections.
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In 1984 I was the CEO of NABU: The Home Computer Network. We were delivering broadband data over cable TV lines to home computers at T-1 speeds. No one could touch our technology. At the same point in time Steve Case was CEO of Quantum Computing, headquartered only a few blocks away. He was delivering far more limited services over narrowband telephone lines at dial-up speeds. My company didn’t make it because there was a lack of demand. It’s hard to be “The Home Computer Network” when there are few home computers and even fewer needing that kind of throughput. Steve, on the other hand, was delivering to the small base of early, limited processing home computers. As the market grew and technology improved he improved his technology as well; but by then NABU had long-since gone to the graveyard of technologies in search of a market.
The relevance of this story is that demand is more important than supply, especially when you are asking folks (public or private) to put up risk capital for infrastructure. If I were to create a hierarchy of needs for broadband, it would begin with the stimulation of demand that insists on broadband ubiquity at reasonable speeds and then grows in throughput as warranted by further demand.
The poster child of the Economic Stimulus has been the Cash for Clunkers program. That program went right to the heart of the auto industry’s malaise by creating demand. Why can’t it be a model for a portion of a National Broadband Policy? Why can’t we have a Bucks for Broadband program that incentivizes the creation of demand that will drive the creation and expansion of networks?
I’m not sure this even requires the direct appropriation of funds like Cash for Clunkers did. Instead, public policy can create the demand by stipulating that government funded services must be able to operate at broadband speeds or there will be no funding. If the several billion being spent on electronic medical records required that all recipients needed to be connected to a specified broadband throughput...If education grants and eRate projects required that the receipt of funds occurred only if certain bandwidth was used…If transportation funding required not only that there be an intelligent highway system but also that it be interconnected with broadband…If grants to public safety agencies required that they needed to utilize existing broadband capacity…If green initiatives and Smart Grid projects all require interconnection to a broadband network. Individually these examples will create demand to stimulate broadband deployment. Collectively they could create an unprecedented broadband construction boom. Then, just like in Chicago, the new network would stimulate further economic growth.
The message is clear: there is a need to plan ahead and assure that there is sufficient broadband capacity, but there is also a need to help people get out of their St. Louis syndrome and demand that capacity now.
EXTRACTED FROM:
FCC National Broadband Plan Workshop
September 26, 2009
Tom Wheeler
Managing Director,
Core Capital Partners, LLC
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If I had broadband I would…
…become the F1 journalist I constantly aspire to be.
Ever since I started tuning-in to the Formula 1 races back in 2001, a little emotion inside me started to grow, continually and with splendor. I leeched onto a rookie driver, Juan Pablo Montoya, and followed his progress religiously. It was the most exciting activity to have ever graced my days. The point I’m trying to make here is that Formula 1 has brought out my inner journalist and having done that, the number one item on my bucket list is to become a Formula 1 journalist. With broadband connectivity in Lebanon, I would be able to do that. Let me explain how:
The broadcasting rights of Formula 1 in the Middle East are owned by Bahrain television. Commentating is mainly in Arabic and also one English commentating team from England.
If I had broadband, I would be able to visit live streaming websites and stream – on the spot – footage of a race from anywhere in the world and from any channel. Because I would be getting precise race feeds, I would be able to commentate to a website for example. I would be able to conduct a minute-by-minute blog on the activities of the race as they happen. If I were given behind the scenes access to select videos from the race weekend in Germany, I would be able to upload them onto my blog or straight to the website where I commentate or post them on YouTube and Facebook for everyone to view.
So you see, broadband Internet will improve your life. Not just vaguely, but in unimaginable proportions. In keeping with Formula 1, let’s imagine I had one hundred friends who simultaneously owned the iPhone and adored Formula 1. With broadband connectivity comes 3G connectivity and with 3G connectivity comes several wonderful iPhone applications that map out the location of other application users. Imagine it is Saturday morning and for some strange reason I can’t catch Formula 1. I would enter the application and on my custom map, miniature red pins would be busy following the location of my one hundred friends. I could find the nearest friend and travel straight to him, quickly, efficiently, and successfully catch the broadcast at his house.
Broadband Internet connectivity is similar to a collection of superpowers bestowed to you by Superman himself. I cannot express how much I want to be a superhero. It’s not enough to involve yourself in a Heroes marathon or wear a long red cape for Halloween. We need to collectively want the superpowers. You need to ask yourself: do you want these superpowers? Do you want broadband Internet?
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Today I’ve met a dude who apparently shares most of my interests. So we talked technology, gadgets, internet and gaming, and when he asked me how many hours a day I normally spend using the Internet I replied by telling him that the only time when I DO NOT use it is when I’m sleeping, passed out, or on Mars. The last two are yet to occur, but the first option is most likely to happen every night.
Forget the dude, the post’s not about him. I’m just using him as a starting point and if I’m lucky enough he won’t be reading this. The point is I’m a heavy user, I’m connected all the time, and when I’m not around Wi-Fi spots or wired connection, I’m usually using my WAP subscription. Why? I need the Internet just like you need oxygen. And there are many like me out there. And when I say that I’m sick of this screwed up connection I usually mean it.
I’m sick of waiting for YouTube to load my videos while I slowly fall asleep only to wake up and find that the video hasn’t entirely buffered. It’s pretty annoying to know that many people around the world use YouTube like we use Google in Lebanon; it’s like television for them. In fact they use is to watch any episode that they’ve missed watching on TV, because quite frankly YouTube was not designed for people to watch a dorky fella dressed in pink like miss Piggy dancing to Kermit’s lovely piano piece. Don’t Google that, no such video exists. Sillier ones however do.
Since my cable guy rocks, I cannot watch a single NBA game. Instead, I’m stuck with translated series on the Pan-Arab channels network. So I wake up every morning to watch a recap on the official NBA website, and if I’m in luck, a single video loads the first 15 seconds then stops. “ERROR loading…” - total BS. Sometimes I try to catch other things on YouTube, like American Idol or something. As usual, things get messy, and Britain’s Got Talent quickly turns into I’ve Got to Go to Bed. Having to wait 15 minutes for a 5 minute video to load is real irritating and it’s getting to my nerves.
I’m also sick of the fact that every time I access a certain website, I’d have to fill out a survey and report how good my experience was. People, stop making us take those surveys, because if you were to decide the fate of your websites based on our comments I’d say you’d be better off sending us magazines. At least you can ship those to Lebanon and it’s guaranteed that we seem them. We do not have broadband so we cannot fully enjoy the crappy Flash content that you use. I’m sick of the fact that I have to choose “Slow Connection” whenever some website gives me a choice. I hate it when Microsoft displays “estimated 2 hours with a 256kbps connection”. I detest the fact that I have to stay up late and organize my “downloads list” because my 2GB monthly cap is barely enough for browsing. Yesterday I had a nightmare; on my screen was a dialog box that said: “2 years, 25 days and 3 hours remaining”. I was downloading the Windows Vista SP2 if you’re wondering. And that nightmare is not too far from reality. I hate it when websites like SAMSUNG’s or NOKIA’s ask me in their surveys about “How easy it was for me to access the website” or “how fast was I able to access the content”. I don’t want them to mark Lebanon as an underdeveloped country because of its connectivity options. – It’s been 8 minutes, I’m still waiting for a mobile phone to appear on an interactive website, my browser’s still loading, and I can’t see crap. The only action that I’m doing is staring. Talk about electrifying interactive content!
I get real pissed off when downloading a song actually takes more time than listening to it later on. I hate it when I use video chatting; the image is always still and yes, the camera of the person on the other side is on. I was reported to be “moving like a robot”, and that’s cool in case I’m trying to learn how to dance like Michael Jackson. But I hate dancing, and I need a better connection.
I’m really fed up with it and I’m seeking your help to improve the network that we have, thus improving our connection. It’ll only take you a couple of seconds (to a strong minute depending on your connection speed) to sign the manifesto and read the rest of the blog entries. If you feel the way I do, please triple click on your mouse (for the fun of it) and pass this on to your friends. We CAN make a difference.
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