National Public Internet

[Geee]

American Spectator:

Over the past 18 months, the Obama Administration has been seeking to more stringently regulate Internet, broadband, and wireless broadband networks operated by such communications firms as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, as well as Comcast and Time Warner Cable. Now it is taking steps to create a taxpayer-financed, government-run broadband network that while ostensibly deployed for use by public safety officials, would compete for business against the current wireless broadband companies.

Late last week a bill co-sponsored by U.S. Senators John D. (Jay) Rockefeller (D-WV) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), that would set aside a wide swath of valuable wireless spectrum to public safety, passed by a bipartisan vote in the Senate Commerce Committee. Funding to build the network would come from the auctioning of additional spectrum to private companies, as well as taxpayer dollars.

While the United States has one of the most advanced and competitive wireless industries in the world, the Obama Administration wants to create a public corporation similar to institutions like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to manage and operate the wireless network. Some inside the White House, according to sources, also support having the government-owned and managed wireless network competing in the marketplace against companies like AT&T and Verizon.

[Valin]

What could possibly go wrong!