She’s apparently just given up on the incrementalism of Net Neutrality and gone straight to government ownership
Let’s create a federal Office of Broadband Access, and invest $85 billion into making sure every home in America has a broadband connection. That means publicly-owned and operated networks—no giant telecom companies running away with taxpayer dollars. https://t.co/37nVKC8xUe
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) August 7, 2019
What could possibly go wrong? From the link
Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren unveiled a proposal to guarantee universal high-speed internet access on Wednesday as part of a new plan to invest in rural communities.
“I will make sure every home in America has a fiber broadband connection at a price families can afford,†the senator from Massachusetts wrote in a post on the blogging platform Medium. “That means publicly-owned and operated networks — and no giant [internet service providers] running away with taxpayer dollars.â€
Warren said she would create a federal Office of Broadband Access to manage an $85 billion grant program. The grants would be awarded to electricity and telephone cooperatives, nonprofits, tribes and municipalities that pledge to bring high-speed internet to underserved areas. (snip)
Warren’s proposal cites low rates of internet access in rural communities.
About 1 in 4 people living in rural areas, and 1 in 3 living on tribal lands, did not have access to minimum speed broadband, the proposal says, citing an FCC report released earlier this year. And in urban areas, Warren wrote, many low-income residents cannot afford to connect to the internet despite technically having access.
“One of the best tools for unlocking economic opportunity and advances in health care, like telemedicine, is access to reliable, high-speed Internet. In the twenty-first century, every home should have access to this technology — but we’re not even close to that today,†Warren wrote.
If Net Neutrality is the heavy hand of government, this is like that hand wearing a lead gauntlet. A Megladon vs a great white shark.
Which other utilities are governmentally owned? Water, sewer, sparktricity, gas, telephone? Yet @ewarren would nationalize the one which would give the government the greatest access to people’s personal information.
— Dana Pico (@Dana_TFSJ) August 8, 2019
People worry about the control that broadband providers have, and tech companies like Google and Facebook. How will it work with Government essentially owning and controlling access to the Internet? And what’s next? Taking over existing companies? Don’t scoff. Having a new Office Of Broadband would create mission creep, and, Warren yammered about broadband companies running away with taxpayer dollars, which seems to be her way of saying they are government dollars, rather than citizen’s money.
