There is a lot of chatter about the $9B or so in Broadband Stimulus, that it will create jobs and improve this or that.

From what I can tell, the stimulus package is too one dimensional. It focuses primarily on rural and under-served areas. We of course need more deployment and need to provide access everywhere possible however, another dimension we need to absolutely focus on is the broadband quality. Though raising the levels to 5/1 is a good initial step, we could have been bolder and set some standards akin to Japan and Korea in the 40-50Mbps range. That would have driven investments and technology much faster. In addition to just focusing on rural and under-served areas, how about focusing on making all schools in US broadband enabled. The quality of education will go up. Both these factors would result in new jobs, innovation, and investment.

We ought to look 5-10 years down the road and see what we need to do now to be competitive and innovative. We ought to dream big, not just take small steps. They help, but, we will miss the opportunity.