
With national healthcare and economic recovery now assured, and peaceful wind-down of international tensions – Obama’s minions have now turned their attentions to the next national calamity – communications infrastructure.
Already, Obama admistration officials are warning that the launch of the Apple iPad, coming next quarter, could bring communications to a standstill as new users swarm wireless networks.
“Apple’s iPad announcement has set off a new round of reports of networks overburdened by a data flow they were not built to handle,” said Phil Bellaria, director of scenario planning for the federal government’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative.
“With the iPad pointing to even greater demand for mobile broadband on the horizon, we must ensure that network congestion doesn’t choke off a service that consumers clearly find so appealing or frustrate mobile broadband’s ability to keep us competitive in the global broadband economy,” wrote Bellaria.
Bellaria likened the iPad’s debut to AOL’s decision in 1996 to offer unlimited Internet access to its users via dial-up modems.
“For months, users had trouble connecting and, once they did connect, experienced frequent service outages. The FCC even held hearings on the problem,” said Bellaria. The iPad features 802.11 Wi-Fi connectivity, as well as 3G cellular connections.
Bellaria said the potential for network slowdowns triggered by iPad-mania demonstrates the need for updated wireless infrastructure and regulatory policies.
“Reaching an always-on wireless broadband future means that the spectrum can no longer remain attached solely to uses deemed valuable decades ago,” he said. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provides millions of dollars in funding for wireless network upgrades.
Where were these same bureaucrats as our broadband speeds slid to 29th rank in the world? We’re behind Korea, Latvia, Romania, Lithuania, Sweden, the Netherlands, and even Bulgaria [our speeds are half as fast as theirs]. We do outrank Haiti – but their mobile service is still much more reliable than ours.
AT&T can’t withstand drizzle, God help them in an earthquake.
It’s about time we had an enlightened and informed national communications policy NOT dictated by corporate thieves or clueless federal bureaucrats.
Don’t we deserve better broadband than Bulgaria?