Wireless in the bush

Listening to Democrats and Republicans forever talking past each over the United States’ standing on the global broadband stage and where wireless technology fits in, you might think our great country of cutting-edge Yankee ingenuity has become as much a basket case on tech policy as many believe we already are on foreign policy.
But hear this: Australia may have us beat. Political debate on a national broadband strategy is raging Down Under. The struggling incumbent Liberal-National Coalition of John Howard envisions a hybrid system of fiber optics for the cities and WiMAX for rural areas by 2009, arguing the approach is cost effective and technology smart. Opposition Labor leader Kevin Rudd, perhaps seeking to incite class warfare and thereby pad his camp’s apparent lead, took to the airwaves to call wireless a “second rate” broadband option and promised to outspend his opponent ($4.7 billion to $1.85 billion) on fiber optics throughout Australia.
The immediate reaction came not from Australian bushies not wanting to be second-class Internet citizens, but from wireless broadband firm Clever Communications (formerly known as Access Providers). Company head Keith Ondarchie was quoted as saying, “It is a shame to see a political leader making such uneducated and misleading comments regarding wireless technology. By dismissing wireless technology he is robbing Australians in rural and regional areas of a genuine alternative technology with the potential to deliver rapid access to high-speed broadband services. Comments like this stifle competition in the Australian telecommunications industry-hurting companies trying to bring alternatives to the market while protecting tier one incumbents that have a vested interest in protecting fixed-line revenues.”
The Australian election is expected in October. President Bush, whose universal-affordable-broadband-by-2007 goal is more political fodder here than the subject of the kind of high-level policy debate in Australia, could see another strong ally on Iraq-Howard-follow Brit Tony Blair in exiting the political arena.
Meantime, closer to home, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin faces trouble building a consensus on whether the U.S. definition of broadband-200 kilobits per second speed in at least one direction-should perhaps be adjusted upward a tad. Indeed, we’re a world away from a serious discussion about a national broadband policy.