Happy New Year, Mr Vaizey

Not for the first time, Telecom Pete finds himself behind the times.  My fascination with the idea of 'the redundant telco' and the rivalry with local authorities to provide ultra-fast broadband access turns out to be an old story in the US.  By way of example Susan Crawford, well-known advocate of the ‘local access as public utility’ school, tells the tale of the struggle to establish a municipal fibre network in Lafayette, Louisiana:

“Push-back from the local telephone company, BellSouth Corp., and the local cable company, Cox Communications Inc., was immediate. They tried to get laws passed to stop the network, sued the city, even forced the town to hold a referendum on the project - in which the people voted 62 per cent in favour. Finally, in February 2007, after five civil lawsuits, the Louisiana Supreme Court voted, 7-0, to allow the network….” 

The conclusion Crawford draws from this and similar experiences is perhaps predictable: 

“All Americans need high-speed access, just as they need clean water, clean air and electricity. But they have allowed a naive belief in the power and beneficence of the free market to cloud their vision”. 

Not sure I totally buy the ‘naïve belief’ accusation but there’s certainly something here to trouble our own government’s thinking on broadband development.  Discuss.