Broadband Access: Where are you on the scale?

As for me and my two cents worth, I think that once you have used broadband for a time, it becomes hard to imagine doing without it - I mean, who would go back to dial up now? Anybody out there? I think that makes it not a luxury, so rule that option out. I think it fits then easily into what I would call a utility - a commodity that is best provided as cheaply as possible for widespread adoption and penetration. The nature of networks means that the more people are connected, the more value the network has - Metcalfe's Rule. So, we all have an incentive to get more people on the broadband Internet, which should increase the value of that network for all of us. And a utility approach is the surest, quickest route to that goal. Once we have a ubiquitous, affordable broadband network, just sit back and watch the services and content come on the network to take advantage of it. Remember what happened with e-commerce? eBay? Amazon? But we need the network to be widespread before we can expect the content industry to really take off.

Finally, personally, I would never claim broadband access was a right - I wouldn't even put telephone and electricity in that category. Society certainly benefits when they are widely available, but things like clean air, clean water, affordable food, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness - those are what I call rights. The right to find a way to make a living is a key concept in our society. But broadband access is something that you must pay for based on how much value you place on it. Like cable TV, or even, a telephone.

The fact that broadband access is a network service makes it to our collective advantage to have it widely available at a very affordable rate, so as many people as possible will get on the network.