Google's Broadband Stimulus Program

[Commentary] Google's announcement that it's going to create one gigabit-per-second networks in a few selected communities looks like what the broadband stimulus program should have been - an attempt to jump start technology, to invest in new ideas and to determine how people will use advanced networks given the chance to use them.

There is no downside to the Google announcement, except perhaps from the point of view of the Federal government, which gave in to the lowest-common-denominator philosophy when structuring the stimulus program, and from the point of view of the incumbent telephone and cable carriers. The telephone and cable industries lobbied heavily to push down the speed limits for networks being built with stimulus funds, then decided not to play when the grant program was announced and now are busy trying to keep other companies, municipalities and organizations from getting grants to build even the slower networks that the government will fund. Now both the government and the industry are being shown up by Google. The fact that the networks the company plans to build will be open to all service providers and will be operated in a fashion consistent with Net Neutrality principles, in addition to being faster than anything now being offered, will certainly rankle some and there will be, no doubt, some sniping from the sidelines - when there should only be applause.