With the US electoral campaign heating up, one of the main high-tech issues will be the state of high-speed internet in America. The scenario for the discussion is predictable and formulaic. Barack Obama will charge that America has fallen woefully behind during the Bush years, trailing 14 OECD countries and will call for governmental action. John McCain will downplay the issue and advocate more of the free market system as the best way to generate efficient investment and low prices. Obama will then call for regulated open access to broadband (“net neutrality”) as a means to inject dynamism, while McCain will want to wait for abuses before launching restrictive regulations. Each of the candidates will point to their position statements. These issue papers are carefully calibrated by committees of supporters. They provide nuanced hints of agreement with various stakeholder groups, but will be ignored by most voters and later, after the elections, by the main decision makers in this field, which are Congress, the nominally bipartisan and independent FCC and the courts. A campaign discussion on this subject could be much deeper and more meaningful. It should be about America’s future information economy... [read more]