Broadband Pundits Seek Cheney's Support

One of the (many) things that stick in my craw is that we're constantly expected to spend more money to facilitate the technological laziness (+ profitability) of large companies. Do we need bigger hard drives or do we need more compact files and applications? Do we need broadband or do we need better compression schemes that allow us to get things done via a standard dial-up modem? Rather than fronting the money to develop Internet technologies that let your average Joe have a reasonably speedy web experience without forking out $50 a month for DSL (after scraping up the cash for a computer), big wigs from a number of U.S. tech firms sat down with Vice President Dick Cheney and company in hopes of having the government help them build more broadband networks. According to News Factor , the Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP) includes CEOs from Dell Computer, Cisco Systems, Intel, and Motorola, and advocates loosening regulations that they think are stifling the construction of broadband networks. The CSPP wants to wire more than 100 million U.S. homes and small businesses with broadband access by 2010. I hate to be negative on a Monday morning, but it sounds like if the CSPP gets its way, we'll be paying for broadband expansion via our taxes as well as our monthly access fees.