Confab - June 29, 2006.

Although Confab isn't a technology show per se, this episode could lead you to believe otherwise. A smaller than normal group -- including Chris Bushnell, Will Kelley-Kamp, Keith Vaitkus and yours truly -- tackled the poor state of broadband Internet in Seattle and the rest of this country. It's my assertion that the issue is political, not financial or technical. Having built and sold a regional Internet Service Provider puts me in a unique position to make that judgment.

Internet access (e.g., the "last mile"), like much of the infrastructure in America, is second-rate or ailing. Even in metropolitan centers of technology like Seattle (home to Amazon, Classmates, Drugstore, Expedia, Microsoft, and a few other MAJOR names you might have heard), we toil under the limitations of pathetically slow DSL and cable services in our homes and small businesses. The "market" (which so many ignorantly believe is the only appropriate answer) has repeatedly failed to affect the duopoly of incumbent telecoms and chartered cable companies. Adding insult to injury, these same players want to kill the very thing (net neutrality) that has made the Internet such a hotbed of innovation.

The silver lining I've found in this brewing storm is the pessimism I feel about the telecom and cable company chances of success. Their death warrants have already been signed. They just can't admit it, themselves.