Broadband has become as much about basic infrastructure in 2011, as dial phones were in the 1960s. It is needed before commercial growth can take place. It is as fundamental to growth as having roads and bridges.
You may not remember the “Bell System” which had a policy of universal service. But they understood that having a phone in every house was more important to the growth and strength of the entire nation, than just having phones in the profitable suburbs and cities. They lost money on the rural phone lines but they made it up on other business lines. It all worked out because it made nationwide opportunities and made us number one in world communications capability at that time.
The government rewarded them and their success by busting them up. They sent Bell Labs to France and millions of US manufacturing jobs to Asia and pushed the USA from leader in communications to its current second tier capability. S Korea and many others have better communications now than the USA.
We need to assure that basic infrastructure, the building block of opportunity and strengthening the nation (not arts museums, Statue of Liberty, and good restaurants) are available nationwide. Broadband has become basic infrastructure just as phone lines were 30 years ago. You cannot start and run a business without it.
Improving and rebuilding our national infrastructure is what should have been done with the stimulus money instead of giving it to politicians in states to get reelected.
I agree that the nationwide upgrade to broadband needs to be a priority, but prudently with common sense because we are not the same fiscally strong nation we were 30-40 years ago.
Which, by Huckabee's account of things, is entirely missing.
Actually, Ma Bell split that up themselves. They split off equipment mfg., from service and gave Lucent the Labs.