Gustin says, that the United States is the only industrialized country without a national broadband policy. Why not? ..Because the biggest broadband service providers in the country; AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, do not want to share the wealth. The Federal Communications Commission plan to regulate broadband internet had been met with opposition from Congress.
According to the New York Times editorial, "The Price of Broadband Politics" lobbyists do not want the F.C.C to extend its authority over telecommunications networks to broadband under the 1996 Telecommunications Act. They want F.C.C. to have to wait for Congress to pass specific legislation.
Even though President Obama is in favor of a national broadband internet policy, the New York Times editorial said that "Comcast warned that the F.C.C.’s efforts could 'chill investment and innovation.' Their (Comcast's) executives and political action committees have been among the top 20 campaign contributors to 58 of the 74 lawmakers in the past two election cycles."
The millions of dollars that the broadband providers AT&T, Comcast and Verizon have each spent on political campaigns has obviously had a lot of influence on our country's ability to move forward. Regulation of broadband internet by the F.C.C would "guarantee open, nondiscriminatory and competitive access and to protect consumers’ rights"
The third annual study from Saïd Business School at Oxford University ranked the United States 15 out of 30 for broadband progress between 2008 and 2010.
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wypi-ivo4p8/TOmAbUUgDgI/AAAAAAAAAEI/lvUDKQU5dhc/s320/slingshot.jpg)
A couple days ago I was able to see a screening of the award-winning documentary,
"Slingshot Hip Hop" which is about Palestinian youth culture and protest. The woman who produced and filmed the documentary and the the rap group featured in the movie, DAM, gave a discussion after the screening shown at the Park Auditorium at Ithaca College.
One of the largest parts of the documentary was about the struggle for the young rap groups to try to communicate with each other and share their support for the work they were all doing. Because the kids in the rap groups had limited mobility and were forbidden to travel outside their own cities, they could only use phone and internet to communication. The documentary itself was really eye opening, but it shows how important internet access is for vital communication.
It irks me, that in America, the land of the free.. the only reason that broadband internet access is so far behind other industrialized countries is because, "Reason is not always a match for money in Washington" (NY Times editorial) and the maintenance of wealth in big business, is more important than the growth broadband internet, and American's access to the most important form of telecommunication network.