Moyers spent an hour on PBS discussing this problem and how US telecommunications companies have already been paid (by the government - i.e. by us) to provide 'last mile' fiber service, but have been stonewalling for over a decade.
RICK KARR: The United States is the birthplace of the Internet and the home of high-tech, but we're no longer tops in the world in high-speed online connections. In fact, the U.S. has dropped below tenth place and compared to some other countries, we're pretty much crawling along the information superhighway.
BRUCE KUSHNICK: America's screwed. I mean we basically are becoming technologically deficient.
RICK KARR: Telecom analyst Bruce Kushnick says that the only thing the U.S. is doing quickly is falling behind.
BRUCE KUSHNICK: Right now what we have basically is sort of like, you know, still pictures versus what's really going to happen next which is full motion video everywhere. We're close to the dinosaurs compared to what these other countries are going to be developing in the next couple years.
RICK KARR: Kushnick says that's because telephone companies back in the 1990s promised that they'd hook us up to the information superhighway, but then reneged on that promise.
RICK KARR: The network that they promised to build, what could it do? Give us a sense of had they actually built this network what could we have on our homes today?
BRUCE KUSHNICK: Video basically allows us to do, for example, high-level video conferencing. Multi-video conferencing basically is the ability to have four or five or six people, with large screens, not these small little things, but large screens sitting around, seeing each other. What we have now is these little screens on the TV's, you know, on your computer that are about this big and everything is jerky. Everything would be smooth, everything would look like as if we were in the middle of STAR TREK....
RICK KARR: According to Teletruth, phone companies took $25 billion in tax write offs while revenues soared 128%. But they didn't build the fiber network they promised.
BRUCE KUSHNICK: So, with all this cash cow, what do you do with the money? They should have said, "Why don't we build the best network we can and therefore it'll basically, the infrastructure, and basically make our infrastructure the best in the world." And they didn't do that. They basically took the money and ran.
BILL MOYERS: When we began our reporting, my colleagues Peter Bull and
RICK KARR: wanted to call this story "David versus Goliath." They were struck by the fact that after the phone companies failed to build the information superhighway they had promised, several towns and cities across the country took matters into their own hands and decided to build their own fiber optic networks. That has landed almost every one of them in a David versus Goliath battle as phone and cable giants push back, determined to outlaw what they call "unfair competition" from municipalities. For a case study, Peter and Rick traveled to Lafayette, Louisiana, the heart of Cajun country.
JOEY DUREL: We have an out-migration problem with our young people from Louisiana, and I felt it was time for politicians to quit talking and do something.
RICK KARR: Something like building every home and business in town its own fiber optic connection to the information superhighway.
DON BERTRAND: We see telecommunications in the way of Internet, in the way of fiber connectivity as something that should be available to everyone.
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Moyers spent an hour on PBS discussing this problem and how US telecommunications companies have already been paid (by the government - i.e. by us) to provide 'last mile' fiber service, but have been stonewalling for over a decade.
...
Heres the URL to watch a video of the program: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/net/inde x.html (click Watch at upper right of page)
For a transcript: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/print/ne tatrisk_transcript_print.html
To whet your appetite:
RICK KARR: The United States is the birthplace of the Internet and the home of high-tech, but we're no longer tops in the world in high-speed online connections. In fact, the U.S. has dropped below tenth place and compared to some other countries, we're pretty much crawling along the information superhighway.
BRUCE KUSHNICK: America's screwed. I mean we basically are becoming technologically deficient.
RICK KARR: Telecom analyst Bruce Kushnick says that the only thing the U.S. is doing quickly is falling behind.
BRUCE KUSHNICK: Right now what we have basically is sort of like, you know, still pictures versus what's really going to happen next which is full motion video everywhere. We're close to the dinosaurs compared to what these other countries are going to be developing in the next couple years.
RICK KARR: Kushnick says that's because telephone companies back in the 1990s promised that they'd hook us up to the information superhighway, but then reneged on that promise.
RICK KARR: The network that they promised to build, what could it do? Give us a sense of had they actually built this network what could we have on our homes today?
BRUCE KUSHNICK: Video basically allows us to do, for example, high-level video conferencing. Multi-video conferencing basically is the ability to have four or five or six people, with large screens, not these small little things, but large screens sitting around, seeing each other. What we have now is these little screens on the TV's, you know, on your computer that are about this big and everything is jerky. Everything would be smooth, everything would look like as if we were in the middle of STAR TREK.
RICK KARR: According to Teletruth, phone companies took $25 billion in tax write offs while revenues soared 128%. But they didn't build the fiber network they promised.
BRUCE KUSHNICK: So, with all this cash cow, what do you do with the money? They should have said, "Why don't we build the best network we can and therefore it'll basically, the infrastructure, and basically make our infrastructure the best in the world." And they didn't do that. They basically took the money and ran.
BILL MOYERS: When we began our reporting, my colleagues Peter Bull and
RICK KARR: wanted to call this story "David versus Goliath." They were struck by the fact that after the phone companies failed to build the information superhighway they had promised, several towns and cities across the country took matters into their own hands and decided to build their own fiber optic networks. That has landed almost every one of them in a David versus Goliath battle as phone and cable giants push back, determined to outlaw what they call "unfair competition" from municipalities. For a case study, Peter and Rick traveled to Lafayette, Louisiana, the heart of Cajun country.
JOEY DUREL: We have an out-migration problem with our young people from Louisiana, and I felt it was time for politicians to quit talking and do something.
RICK KARR: Something like building every home and business in town its own fiber optic connection to the information superhighway.
DON BERTRAND: We see telecommunications in the way of Internet, in the way of fiber connectivity as something that should be available to everyone.