For no other country has the technological edge, or so fervently practices the free market approach that is opening the floodgates to investment in every area of communications. These applications are crucial because they hold the promise of enhancing the quality of our lives, while also preserving what is unique about the great American experiment in freedom and free enterprise. Even five years ago, we did not seem to be so well positioned when compared to other countries. For example, Singapore, a city-state about the size of San Diego, has already started to implement an aggressive plan to wire with fiber optics every school, hospital, home, community center and business. Japan is no slouch in this area, either.
Japan already has more than a hundred high-tech, broadband communications experiments in place.
Throughout the world, in Berlin, Biarritz and Brussels, in Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan, similar plans or experiments are in the works or under way. Until now, however, Washington seemed oblivious to threats of world competition, and seemed satisfied with erecting new fences against these kinds of integrated and innovative plans. Along the way, Washington repeatedly underestimated American business's frustration with these archaic restrictions, as well as an even more restless public searching for economic leadership. At last, things are shifting in the nation's capital. The November 1994 Congressional election enabled us to see the importance of a robust, free-wheeling communications industry to individual and collective wealth and well being in the new global information economy.