FC: The new pork: Tech firms ask Feds to pay billions for broadband

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Where's John McCain when you need him? --DBM]


http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB993418457489449631.htm
#    
#    Tech Industry Seeks Its Salvation         June 25, 2001
#    In High-Speed Internet Connections
#    
#    By SCOTT THURM and GLENN R. SIMPSON
#    Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
#    
#    High-tech executives think they've found a cure for the industry's 
#    deepest slump in a decade: High-speed Internet access for 
#    everyone.
#    
#    For years, telephone and cable-TV companies have been promising 
#    to build high-speed "broadband" networks, which let consumers 
#    and small businesses tap the Internet 20 or 30 times faster than 
#    conventional phone lines, yet the rollout has been slow. There's 
#    little agreement, even within the tech world, on the ground rules 
#    for building such networks, which would cost tens of billions 
#    of dollars. But suddenly the topic has rocketed to the top of 
#    the technology industry's agenda in Washington, where 
#    traditionally distant tech executives are asking for help.
#    
#    The chairmen of International Business Machines Corp., Intel 
#    Corp., Motorola Inc. and others last week met with key lawmakers 
#    and National Economic Council officials to support bills that 
#    would provide tax credits for building high-speed networks in 
#    rural areas and economically depressed inner cities. Other 
#    executives propose broader tax breaks, comparing broadband 
#    Internet links with the government-financed interstate highway 
#    or rural electric systems.
#    
#    Likening the task to the 1960s effort to put a man on the moon, 
#    John Chambers, chief executive of Cisco Systems Inc., is asking 
#    that the federal government commit to making broadband connections 
#    available to every home by 2010. A Cisco lobbyist calls the effort 
#    "our No. 1 goal" (although a spokesman says Mr. Chambers doesn't 
#    think the government would be the one to build the network).
#    
#    Some tech executives argue that extending broadband networks 
#    would help revive the national economy, because tech spending 
#    contributed such a large share of economic growth in recent years. 

[...]

**********

From: David Honig <honig () sprynet com>
Subject: Re: Pleading to Washington for broadband
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 06:46:57 -0700

At 03:00 AM 6/26/01 -0400, George () Orwellian Org wrote:
> Excerpt:
>
> #    Likening the task to the 1960s effort to put a man on the moon,
> #    John Chambers, chief executive of Cisco Systems Inc., is asking
> #    that the federal government commit to making broadband connections
> #    available to every home by 2010.

And in related news, Janet Panopticon, CEO of a webcam manufacturer,
suggested that the federal government commit to providing free
internet enabled digital cameras sufficient for each room of
a residence...

**********




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