Last week, I had the opportunity to visit Washington DC, where members of the optical fiber community gathered as part of the Fiber to the Home Council’s annual planning meeting.
Among other things, we met with Nicholas Degani, Legal Advisor to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai. Commissioner Pai, who is the Senior Republican Commissioner, has been a strong advocate for high speed broadband. Over the period of his term, he has put forth his ideas on how the country can work to enhance broadband speeds and the access of a broader number of Americans to this technology. While Commissioner Pai has been a friend to fiber, he is also a pragmatist, and recognizes the up-front costs associated with an all-fiber network.
My frustration with government policy is that pragmatism (and politics) wins out over vision.
A vision for high-speed broadband recognizes that an all-fiber network has the best return on investment. It has the lowest cost of ownership. It has the lowest total capital requirement if done right the first time — rather than going back to fix and upgrade the challenges associated with other technologies.
There is much talk in Washington that the focus of the incoming administration will be Tax Overhaul and Infrastructure Investment. We need to call on our elected officials and remind them that broadband networks are as much infrastructure as roads and highways. Let’s Make America Great Again. Let’s lead the world in high-speed broadband deployment – with fiber – rather than lag behind most of the developed world whose average internet speed far exceeds ours.