For the time being, building bandwidth has taken a back seat to short-term political goals, most of them manifested by little more than finger pointing and name calling. Lobbyists, pundits and politicians find it easy to bash the former Bell Operating Companies. Some lawmakers and regulators like to point fingers at cable companies for raising rates. But the abandonment of price regulation and universal service cross-subsidies would do much more for bandwidth than taxing and spending by sleight of hand. To encourage competition, prices must be allowed to rise and fall freely.
Price regulation discourages new entrants.
If prices are free to rise, investors will be encouraged to deploy satellite technology and other innovations to bring lower costs and amazing new services to the next generation of rural residents. Subsidies, on the other hand, create a self-fulfilling prophecy of stagnation. More bandwidth across the board would come from freeing the electromagnetic broadcast spectrum from Soviet-style central planning and licensing. Private owners should be allowed to buy and sell property rights to spectrum and use it as they please. Wireless and satellite technologies could lead the way in bringing low-cost bandwidth to homes, schools and businesses for everything from local phone service to Internet access.