by Kerry Thomas
September 10, 2008
According to the Lakeland
Times, the Minocqua Economic Development Task Force seems to be concerned
about a lack of high-speed internet accessibility in the area. They must have missed Jim Holperin’s June 4 press release.
Holperin announced
he plans to assure
high speed internet access to every home and business in the 12th Senate
District by 2012.
Holperin
said that within 60 days of taking office he would select and convene a task
force on rural internet connectivity.
Holperin said he would then ask the panel to develop a plan to assure
universal high speed internet service to every home and business in the Senate
district by 2012.
“I’m
hoping the task force can develop several other creative and effective
incentives for private sector companies to extend service to every northwoods
business and resident that wants high speed internet,” Holperin said.
According
to Jim Holperin, “a government/private sector partnership is inevitable.”
Hmmm,
seems to me we just saw how well these things work. Have you read anything lately about Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae?
And if
experience is any sort of a guide, my guess is that any government-sponsored
universal high-speed internet service will be about as efficient and reliable
as any other government service. And
you think your internet customer service is bad now.
And who’s
going to pay for this “universal high speed internet service?” Is it going to be a new right, just like
universal health care?
I guess
Jim Holperin really doesn’t have a plan.
Oh, but he’s going to convene a task force to look at the problem. The task force will then come up with a plan
that Holperin can take credit for.
What’s
really amusing in all of this is that high speed internet service is already
available throughout the northwoods, and the entire continental United States
via satellite. I’ve had my high-speed
satellite internet service in rural Sayner since 2003. Many people here in the northwoods are
utilizing their cellular phone service to access the internet at DSL or higher
speeds. Still other companies are
already exploring the feasibility of wireless high-speed internet service, and
moving ahead with preliminary planning for tower siting and FCC frequency
licensing.
High-speed
internet access is already available throughout much of Vilas and Oneida
Counties through the local phone and cable companies. Additionally,
over in Florence County, the Niagara
Telephone Company already offers high-speed internet access for nearly all
of Florence County except for the two western-most towns in the county.
Florence County has an average of three homes per square mile.
These and other companies are
utilizing provisions of the 1936 Rural Electrification Act
to help defray the costs of providing these services to rural communities. If you have a phone, a little item known as
the universal service
fee shows up on your bill every month.
You’re already paying to subsidize the service nationwide, whether you
use it or not.
So, once
again, we have an example of a career government bureaucrat proposing to study
the problem and come up with a solution years from now. Meanwhile, the private sector has already
found workable solutions to the problem.
The reason
the internet has been such a successful application of technology is because of
the lack of government interference in the medium. The only way it will remain successful is by keeping the
government bureaucrats away as long as possible.
While
liberal, oops, I mean Progressive, Democrat bureaucrats like Jim Doyle and his
hand-picked candidate Jim Holperin like to talk about progress, free-market
capitalists and entrepreneurs in the private sector are actually making
progress.
When it
comes to computer technology, the processing speed doubles every eighteen
months. With advances that fast, the
ability of the private sector to overcome the challenges to “universal”
high-speed internet access in rural Wisconsin will double, then double again,
and double yet once more before Jim Holperin’s task force of government
bureaucrats will even be able to put their by then obsolete plan together.
And
because they will be government bureaucrats, their plan will still be in
printed format on paper, awaiting the proper hearings and amendments before
anything is ever accomplished.