The New New Deal

The collision of Net Neutrality, Snowden, Comcast and Time Warner merging, ISP battles, are leading us to become even more subservient to a potential monopoly/oligarchy of control of the internet. While this might not warrant many issues for some, others, like myself who's career and income are derived from having an internet connection see the necessity of keeping the internet open to competition and the true free market.

A glimmer of hope has come to my mind in the form of +Google Fiber and their installations throughout many cities. Even though major ISP's try to tell us that we really don't want such fast internet speeds, it's just not true; when you look at the pricing of Google Fiber, it is a product that truly brings competition back to the market.

We as a country are not leading in the innovation of this technology at all. We're not even in the top 10 around the world. I understand the infrastructure challenge that our country poses. America is a vast country, and the challenge is great.

And this is my rally cry. This could be the New "New Deal!"

Looking to what happened in England and British Telecom, there's a unique roadmap we could take. Here's a quick recap: British Telecom laid down all the fiber for the internet around major hubs of England, and then was ruled a monopoly. Parliament ruled that they should "rent" the fiber to other ISP's in order to create competition in the marketplace.

I watched an Engadget podcast a couple of years ago, and they were talking that a Londoner was paying around $50 for 1 Gigabit speed internet, phone and cable. That's crazy!

So let's create the New "New Deal" here in America. Employ a nation-wide workforce to lay the fiber and connect our country. Allow ISP providers to "rent" the connections, and create competition. Break up the regional monopolies and duopolies.

With faster internet connections, we could create more job growth and opportunities around the nation, and put more people on a level playing field with those in the major cities.

This is my big dream...