Senator Dale Schultz Releases Broadband Update
By Dale Shultz • Sep 28th, 2009 • Category: NewsPeople ask Senator Dale Schultz the same question everywhere he goes these days, “When will I have broadband where I live?”
Schultz is hearing the question from people ’stuck with dial-up’ internet service or with parents or friends living in a rural area where reliable broadband service is not available or not affordable.
To answer everyone’s questions, Schultz (R-Richland Center) has just released an update on broadband developments. Schultz calls his broadband initiative “Universal Broadband for a Rural Region” or UBER for short. Find the report on his website at http://broadband.senatordaleschultz.com.
Schultz’s UBER Update covers several broadband plans relevant to this region. The plans, submitted in August, seek some of the $7.2 billion in federal stimulus funds to extend broadband to unserved and underserved rural regions.
Plans were submitted by entities in Reedsburg, Hilbert, Little Chute, Richland Center, and Madison. At least one of the plans would cover every county of this region.
Schultz says a senior citizen could benefit the most from broadband even if he or she never turns on a computer. He explains that health care equipment that requires broadband may enable a person to continue living in their home.
“As government closes more offices and shifts service delivery to the internet, each taxpayer benefits from the savings,” said Schultz. “But government has an obligation to help make those internet services available to all taxpayers.”
Schultz said broadband benefits a worker that can work from home during a flu outbreak, school closure and inclement weather. Broadband helps a student of any age do homework, improve work skills, and be a life-long learner.
“When broadband saves traveling, everyone benefits from less traffic and less air pollution,” Schultz said.
Dale Shultz is Wisconsin's 17th District Senator. Dale was elected to the Assembly in 1982 and to the State Senate in 1991. He and his wife, Rachel, own and manage their family’s farm, which became a Wisconsin Century Farm in 1998. He is a member of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau, the Masons, and the Lions.
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The senators page seems succinctly devoid of any actual information about how he plans to provide broadband to rural wisconsin. I see a cheezy acronym, UBER, and no meat. I see a whole lot of opportunity for pork, gotta hire lotsa your good buddies for those survey’s eh Senator?
Map the broadband infrastructure? Talk about a waste of tax dollars, the telcos already know who is in their service areas, make them give up the goods. Then offer them the opportunity to provide broadband to underserved areas, if they decline, public fiber. Done.
Government may continue to own a small part of telecommunications “first mile” and “middle mile” infrastructure like some optical fiber cables, but most of the back haul and virtually all the “last mile” or retail infrastructure will remain private-sector owned. No one with any awareness of this subject is suggesting significant expansion of government telecomm infrastructure ownership. However, public-private partnerships can hasten universal broadband across rural areas, and help result in more of what community members need. The current Congress included broadband mapping funds for all 50 states because that’s an essential component for broadband planning. Doyle appointees at the state’s Public Service Commission chose the private contractor for Wisconsin’s broadband mapping. Report suspected problems to the Legislative Audit Bureau’s Waste, Fraud and Abuse Hotline, 877.372.8317, http://www.legis.wisconsin.gov/lab/fraudHotline.htm.
You misunderstand me, the pork is the whole broadband mapping. I’m all for public broadband if the big business incumbents are unwilling to meet the demands of the 21st century American. I am suggesting government telecomm infrastructure.
I, as a taxpayer, have already paid for all of this. We’re all supposed to have lightning fast connections. America was fleeced by the telcos.
http://www.newnetworks.com/ShortSCANDALSummary.htm
At this point, the telcos know their service areas. They aren’t willing to spill the beans because they want to continue to cherry pick the most profitable service areas, but the idea that they don’t know is ridiculous.
If the government is spending tax dollars on “broadband mapping” the sole goal of that project should be public broadband, you’ve admitted that it isn’t, so what’s the point? That’s what, in reality, we call pork. What Shultz is offering up is more of the same big business collusion with government, no thanks.