Edwards: Defender of Net Neutrality and Open Spectrum Allocations

Senator Edwards: Defender Of Net Neutrality And Open Spectrum Allocations
By Michael Arrington--TechCrunch
Monday, November 19, 2007
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To date we've had the opportunity to talk with 2008 presidential candidates Governor Mitt Romney and Senator John McCain about their positions on various technology related issues. As promised, Senator John Edwards, our first Democrat, is next up. See his PoliticalBase page here.

Last week we asked for your questions and received a great response. Senator Edwards has now answered many of those questions.

He is planning bold initiatives in a number of areas. He’s promising to support Net Neutrality (this issue is now falling firmly along party lines - Republicans either won’t address it or favor a free market approach; Democrats are behind it):

"I believe that if we do not guarantee net neutrality, the Internet could go the way of network television and commercial radio - with just a few loud corporate voices and no room for the grassroots and small entrepreneurs."

He wants to see universal broadband available to all U.S. households by 2010, half way through his first term (and voters can therefore hold him accountable). And he’s firmly behind Google in the new mobile spectrum allocations (good update on Google’s plans is here).

When it comes to clean energy, he wants to find ways to freeze demand for electricity and reduce our carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. His plan includes a $13 billion a year New Energy Economy Fund to invest in alternative energy sources, and tax credits/guaranteed loans for renewable biorefineries.

(...)

Q&A With Senator John Edwards

Michael Arrington: Let’s start with a broad question. The U.S. technology industry has been a world leader and has grown substantially through international markets, what would you do to advance these efforts?

Senator John Edwards: I believe that the single most important factor for America’s future prosperity is investment in education, science, technology and innovation. But today we are challenged by other countries which have invested aggressively in education, engineering and infrastructure, giving them an edge in the global economy. The country that developed the Internet is now 16th in broadband deployment, and America’s competitiveness has suffered. In 2002, for the first time ever the US imported more advanced technology products than it exported—the deficit is now $40 billion. The spread of broadband has been uneven and costly, too driven by the profits of a few entrenched companies and technologies to allow the nation as a whole to realize the billions in economic benefits promised by truly universal Internet access.

I will set a goal of universal broadband by 2010, make the Research and Experimentation tax credit permanent, make higher education affordable with College for Everyone and improve patent quality by reforming our patent laws and devoting more resources to the patent office. I will also enact smart trade policies that provide a level playing field for American business and workers and fight currency manipulation and illegal subsidies.

Finally, I will reverse the trend of having America invent transformative new technologies like the electric car and the solar panel, only to have other countries lead in deploying and marketing them. As part of my plan to combat global warming, I will help American usher in a new energy economy based on clean, renewable, and energy-efficient technologies.

MA: Would you make it a priority in your first year of office to re-instate Net Neutrality as law? What is your specific plan to ensure equal access to all players, regardless of size?

JE: In May, I – like thousands of citizens – wrote a letter to the FCC urging them to guarantee net neutrality. I believe that if we do not guarantee net neutrality, the Internet could go the way of network television and commercial radio - with just a few loud corporate voices and no room for the grassroots and small entrepreneurs. Our country is already divided enough between the haves and have-nots. Where we go to school, where (and if) we get health care, whether we can retire with dignity - we have big divides in all of these areas in this country.

While we work to create One America, we should not allow the Internet to be divided or corporate censorship to take root. That would make the other important work we have to do that much harder. The Internet is not the answer to everything, but it can powerfully accelerate the best of America. It improves our democracy by making quiet voices loud, improves our economy by making small markets big, and improves opportunity by making unlikely dreams possible.

As president, I will do several things to encourage innovation and neutrality online. First, I will ensure that the FCC preserves free expression and competition on the Internet by enforcing net neutrality, ensuring no degradation or blocking of access to web sites. I will also bring the Carterfone rule to wireless so that Americans can connect any device or applications to their wireless service, just as they can to their landline phone service.

MA: The U.S. higher education system is among the best in the world. But not enough students seem to be interested in science and math at younger ages, and some studies suggest we turn out far fewer engineers than India and China, among other countries.

The purpose of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act is to help bridge the gap between primary and secondary education. Among other things, it has a goal of ensuring that every student is technologically literate by the time they finish the eighth grade, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, family income, location or disability.

Do you believe we are achieving these goals and serving our children today? What do you think is the best way to reach the goal?

JE: We all pay a price when young people who could someday find the cure for AIDS or create the next Google end up sitting on a stoop because they didn’t get the education they need. Today, too few of our schools are teaching our children creative, analytical skills, and too few students have access to the technology that can light that spark. Ninety-five percent of urban high schools report problems getting qualified science teachers. American 9th-graders are 18th in the world in science education.

No Child Left Behind has lost its way by imposing cheap standardized tests, narrowing the curriculum at the expense of science, history, and the arts and mandating unproven cookie-cutter reforms on schools. As a result, it has lost the support of teachers, principals, and parents, whose support is needed for any reform to succeed.
Every year, 200,000 college-qualified students cannot enroll because their families cannot afford it.

Our children are every bit as talented as our foreign competitors, but they have not been given the tools they need to succeed. I believe that every school should be wired and that we need to overhaul our curricula to emphasize technological skills, math and science, creative thinking and problem-solving. I also support Career Academies in high schools that link students to local employers and skills in high-demand industries, including information technology. If we do not invest in developing these skills among our children now, the United States risks becoming a technology follower, rather than a leader.

As president, I will overhaul No Child Left Behind to center our schools around children, not tests, and help struggling schools, not punish them. I will also launch a “School Success Fund,” a Marshall Plan-like effort to rebuild and restore America’s schools. I would ask teams of experienced educators, what I call “education SWAT teams,” to spend a year at struggling schools helping launch reforms where we need them the most.

To ensure that every child is prepared to succeed, I will provide resources to states to help them offer universal high-quality “Great Promise” preschool programs for four-year-olds. I will work with states to give all teachers in successful high-poverty schools up to a $15,000 raise. I will also create a national teachers’ university – a West Point for teachers – to recruit 1,000 top college students a year, train them to be excellent teachers, and encourage them to teach where they are needed most. Finally, I will create a national version of a program I started in a rural county in North Carolina, called College for Everyone, which provides a full year of public college tuition and books to any college-qualified student who is willing to work part-time.

(...)

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/19/senator-edwards-defender-of-net-neutrality-and-open-spectrum-allocations/

Excellent interview - more at link.

Which one would sell us all down the river on this if they were in office?

There may or may not be a problem here, but after she is elected, she will form a bi-partisan commission to study the issue, and offer the corporate lobbyists a "seat at the table".
The results will make no one happy except the CEOs who will see an increase in taxpayer money pouring into their pockets.

His position is squarely in favor of Net Neutrality and agaisnt the big corporate media machine.

The editors of TechPresident, a blog dedicated to the intersection of politics and technology took the time to grade each candidate's technology proposals.

Here are the grades:

Barack Obama A-

John Edwards A-

Joe Biden B

Hillary Clinton B-

Chris Dodd C

Bill Richardson C-

Dennis Kucinich D

The rationale behind each grade is available here: http://www.techpresident.com/blog/entry/13521/who_will_be_america_s_first_techpresident_grading_the_democrats

Thanks

Thanks Locke, we need a lot more of these.

Once again, Edwards talks about real issues that matter to all of us. and once again he is on the right side of every one of them.

It is so frustrating to me to endure primary season here at DU. For 3 years since the election in 2004 we have talked about nothing BUT issues like these, and how the Bush admin and Republicans in Congress were just killing us on every one. Now the primary season is here and suddenly instead of caring about any of this stuff we have this "cult of personality" thing going on about all of our candidates. It as if most of DU doesn't even care where they stand on any given topic; they just pick their favorite person and root for them like it's a baseball game or something.

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but *I* care about what a candidate wants to do with the Presidency, and little else. I don't care if they are Black, or Hispanic, or female, or the Face of Bo. WHAT DO THEY BELIEVE IN? That's what matters to me, and that is what I will base my primary vote on.

K&R

:kick:

And bloggers are in denial because his SENATE VOTING RECORD is more
corporate than the Senator he is sliming.

One of the most nauseating "truths" touted on this board is that his Senate career was undistinguished and that it wasn't progressive and populist.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:SN03180:@@@L&summ2=m&

Every computer user in America would have his vote! :rofl:

(Except the "morans", but then they never do get it, do they?)

And let's remember he's a Dem Senator from a red state, HRC is a Dem Senator from a blue state... go figure.

I'm too tired to comment on this excellent article...I'll read it in the morning again, when I'm awake. :)

Good work today John, fantastic job!

:bounce:

article. Thanks for the excerpts and link. I'm with Edwards all the way.

K&R

He has detailed plans and shares them. Now THAT makes a difference.

...how can Edwards promise universal broadband by the year 2010, only two years into his would-be presidency?

The latest statistic I could find was from June 2006, saying that the US had 19.2 broadband subscriptions per 100 residents. Obviously most of those are shared by families, so perhaps that means roughly 75% of the population -- I wish I could find real stats on households with broadband access.

At any rate, it's a fair guess that those currently left out either can't afford broadband access or are in rural areas where the necessary infrastructure has not yet been deployed. Time alone will close some of the access gap between now and January 2009, but it still looks like an awfully tall order to get to universal access by 2010.