Expanding Internet Access in the U.S.

"Within the next five years, we will make it possible for business to deploy the next generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98% of all Americans."

Could interconnecting rural areas via an internet highway fuel existing economies and create new business models?  It could be part of the equation but just adding internet access is not the final solution.

At a minimum, to make this happen, we will probably need to:
1.  To encourage the television industry to give up some of their bandwidth to make it available for wireless.

2.  Provide incentives, read your tax dollars, would need to be teed up to encourage firms to lay more cable for landline access to the internet.

3.  Update the policies and inventory of the airwaves, who gets to use them, and what they get used for.

4.  Discuss policy questions such as:  If the Government drives the build out, does that mean they control and manage the newly built internet access?

Sources:
State of the Union Speech, President Obama, January 25, 2011.

"Obama Aims to Boost Infrastructure Spending", Josh Mitchell, Wall Street Journal, January 26, 2011.

"Obama Pushes Expanding High - Speed Wireless Service", Reuters, New York Times, January 26, 2011.