I know it’s easy to be cynical and scoff at the idea of politicians staking out policy positions that won’t capture talk-radio’s interest or fit neatly into an attack ad. But regardless of what your position may be on issues such as Net Neutrality, municipalities’ roles when it comes to wireless networks and other broadband-related policies, we all need to ask our elected leaders and candidates about these issues. If we don’t, then we deserve what we get — or, as the case may be, don’t get.

“Where else in our public lives do we settle for such an ad hoc approach?”
“Why is it important (or even appropriate) to set the bar so low in defining broadband?”
“Why should we limit our planning to the bare minimum?” and finally,
“What about the next steps after mapping, like joint planning among multiple entities and joint procurement?”

It’s times like these that I think we must be the most dysfunctional nation on the planet, but then, I know we’re functional or even leading in many areas – we get so much right as a nation, so how is it that we can seem so backward when it comes to broadband?

I’d argue that it starts with Attitude. As long as we view communication as the strict priority of the private sector, and even more, of the incumbent private sector, then it follows that it’s out of scope to have either the federal government or public citizens take a more assertive role at the policy table.

We need to snap out of our complacency when it comes to broadband. Our current approach is not serving us well as a nation.

We need to look beyond the conventional when it comes to broadband, beyond DSL, Cable, and Cellular. There are alternatives to the reigning status quo approaches that are showing more ingenuity and hold significant potential (Wi Fi Mesh, WiMAX, BPL, FTTH, for a start), and they’re having success on a small scale while swimming upstream against the current.

In no way does adding these alternatives to the discussion lessen the potential impact of the conventional side. There’s plenty of room for Old and New.

There is Win/Win potential in taking a comprehensive look at our broadband future and crafting a policy that preserves the best of the current system and adds to that the best of the new innovative approaches. But we’ll not get to that discussion if we have stay with our closed attitudes about broadband.

Progress in this area has to start with a “large, open table” discussion among all interested parties. We’re late to the game in not having had this discussion already. The prospect of a messy, complicated, unpredictable, or even transformative outcome is no reason not to get the conversation started now.

We owe it to ourselves and our children to get our collective act together when it comes to national broadband policy.