Skype keeps up their efforts on the hot topic of openness with a letter to the editor about the Broadband Stimulus package being proposed in the USA by our new President Obama. It’s well thought out, and something that is indeed needed.
Candidly, the threat of carriers not letting certain apps on their networks, making services not work properly is harming the entire eco-system the Internet and the Web has really spawned. The entire behavior is anti-competitive, monopolistic and self serving.
I’ve long felt that rural broadband is a key to our economic, academic and lifestyle growth. Personally, I’d often thought about a nice “second” home in a community where things weren’t so crowded somewhere in the wine country of Santa Barbara County or up in Oregon. But the lack of broadband options, I mean real broadband options, at favorably prices per month have always kept those dreams dashed.
My view is simple. We have new technologies like FTTP/FTTH/FTTN that can deliver upwards of 100 megs or more. We see WiMax working well where its deployed (but its been deployed where wireline coverage already exists which is the mistake) and those technologies are exactly what’s needed in rural America.