Broadband data bills favor Big Government over competition

Senate Democrats are attempting to sneak through the back door what they cannot get through the front door of the "free and open"  policy process.

The Inouye "Broadband Data Improvement Act" is really a long term trojan horse for net neutrality and heavy regulation of broadband.

• The bill requires that the FCC "establish a new definition of second generation broadband to reflect a data rate that is not less than the data rate required  to reliably transmit full-motion, high definition video." 
• "Reliable" "high-definition" broadband is certainly not DSL or existing cable modems.

The clever ruse in this innocuous-sounding language is to redefine broadband competition as a total abject failure, and to declare broadband market failure, so the pro-regulatory types can regulate broadband becuase it is not competitive, or is at best a future duopoly.

The reason that Congressional Democrats want to redefine what high speed is, is so that they can ensure that it is not a competitive market anymore.

• That will then require tax and government subsidies like the New Deal rural electicification, and universal phone service -- i.e liberal-heaven.

This bill also asks for a GAO study to determine ways to calculate "average price per megabyte of broadband offerings."

• That is an obvious precursor to price regulation!  

I certainly hope Senate Republicans see through this transparent ruse and block this $40m government program to try and torpedo the 12 year, bi-partisan, successful policy of promoting competition and not regulating the Internet.

There is no broadband problem requiring a national broadband policy or new broadband data/metrics.

• The only reason for a "national" policy or for new metrics is to undermine current competition policy and replace it with  heavy government intervention.