Fergie's Tech Blog

Nortel chief: U.S. needs new broadband vision

Grant Gross writes in InfoWorld:

The U.S. government lacks a broad vision for broadband and wireless technologies and is losing ground as countries like South Korea and India push new technologies from the highest level of government, the chief executive of Nortel Networks said Tuesday.

Bill Owens, a former U.S. Navy admiral, stopped short of advocating an expansive new U.S. government policy while speaking at the Aspen Summit, sponsored by the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a think tank that advocates free-market approaches over government regulations. But he did question whether U.S. government leaders understand technology issues as well as their counterparts in other countries with fast-growing broadband services.

Owens challenged broadband providers to move toward 20-megabit connections across the U.S. in order to keep up with Internet improvements in other countries. "I just wonder who in the United States government is at a level where they're seeing that vision ... where they must do something to look into the future," he said. "I wonder if the lawmakers and the cabinet members and the senior people in our government understand how rapidly this is happening, how quickly the world is changing."

Owens didn't offer many concrete proposals, instead raising questions about the U.S. focus on future technologies, although he suggested more telecom regulation should be done at the national level, instead of the state level.

posted by Fergie @ 8/23/2005 03:31:00 PM