Revolution Messaging

The NYTimes featured a story in its July 9 edition regarding the Broadband deployment resulting from the Stimulus package. It’s worth a read for the inspiration alone. The point and purpose of the effort is to bring high-speed connectivity to areas of the country, typically but not always rural, that have lacked for anything beyond dial-up for accessing the Web: “The types of Internet activities that most Americans take for granted — watching videos, downloading songs, social networking — are out of reach for millions of homes across the United States. These people — many in poor, rural pockets — either have outmoded dial-up Internet service or have no affordable high-speed service. Sometimes the nearest high-speed connection is at the local library, 10 miles away.”

The digital divide has cleaved a clear path between, quite literally, the have’s and the have not’s. If ever there was a positive need for stimulus dollars, solving this challenge is it. The plain fact of the matter is that without solid, fast Internet connectivity many Americans are marooned; and we’re not just talking about Facebook status updates. We’re talking home-based businesses, critical medical information, and online education.

I was a member of the citizen advisory board that reviewed and selected among the hundreds of vendor submissions for deploying broadband. Based on that I can tell you this process was exhaustive and resulted in truly selecting best of breed suppliers, some with innovative wireless methods for stretching connectivity out over miles of land to others with tried-and-true, simple wired methods. It was an honor to participate and proved to me just how serious this Administration, including the FCC and its chair Julius Genachowski, are about bringing broadband to every American, not just those of us lucky to be on the carriers’ path. (Not only that, but for you doubters out there who think stimulus money isn’t well-spent, I have hours upon hours of vendor reviews to prove otherwise.)

For broadband Internet is the 2010 equivalent of the railroad or the telegraph; without it, towns and families aren’t on equal footing to thrive. This revolution truly will be broadcast… online.