Spectrum of Greed

If you are a wireless executive, this guy is VERY scary!

It is that time of year when everyone starts to think about spooky things, so who can blame Charles Golvin for making the comment that headlines this article?  Golvin is principal analyst with Forrester Research, and he made that remark regarding the reaction of wireless companies to the FCC’s current plan to extend Net Neutrality rules to include wireless providers.  The gentleman to our left here is not the star of the new “Saw” movie, or Halloween 57, or Friday the Thirteenth, part 34 - he is Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski.  And he is the really, really spooky dude who is causing the big bad wireless providers to seriously reconsider how safe it is to go out and loot the general public with their standard trick or treat activities.  The New York Times talked about it a month ago, and just today the FCC approved a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Net Neutrality.  This is to those who are advocates for Net Neutrality a day to celebrate, not a day to fear!  Check out the joyous coverage at Savetheinternet.

But wait, as Halloween approaches, there is still time for ghost stories.  Check these out, courtesy of Craig Aaron;

One of the most pervasive myths being peddled by Net Neutrality opponents is the idea that protecting the free and open Internet will somehow hinder investment in the telecommunications sector.

On Wednesday in a speech in Chicago, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg lamented, “If we can’t earn a return on the investments we make in broadband capacity, our progress toward a connected world will be delayed, if not halted altogether.”

On Tuesday, Joe Barton, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said that Net Neutrality rules could have “potentially catastrophic effects on investment and deployment of broadband services throughout the country.”

AT&T chief lobbyist James Cicconi “asked” his employees to use their personal e-mail accounts to warn the FCC that Net Neutrality would “halt private investment in broadband infrastructure.”

And in Broadcasting & Cable, telco hired guns Mike McCurry and Mark McKinnon ominously warned investment and the jobs “could be snuffed out by new regulation that chills the revenue streams to fund it.”

Pretty scary stuff, to be sure. But like most good ghost stories, this one’s completely fictitious.

Yep, it is going to be a very scary Halloween this year!  Next year we may have moved up the global ladder of top broadband countries, and we might be paying less for the privilege.  Wait, that sounds like open competition at work!  Scary!