Reed Hundt Quotes
How do we say to the phone companies that you have to maintain an affordable [subsidized] system for everybody in America and the data companies can do whatever they want? It gives us two different Americas.
As the telephone developed, we made a political decision that virtually everyone should be able to access the system. The result was a system whereby the most profitable parts of the telephone business subsidized basic telephone service so that everyone could be connected to a national network. However, when the Internet came along, there was no such requirement. Cable companies had universal access requirements in a few communities but these evaporated when cable was freed from local regulation. As the technologies converge the differences in approach become problematical.
Reed Hundt, Chairman, Federal Communications Commissions (Democrat), Lecture, Georgia Tech University, April 2005
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
At the time, the few private companies that provided American Internet service did not want to increase the bandwidth speeds to homes. Those businesses who needed more bandwidth paid dearly for it, but consumers could not afford those rates. With fiber optics, it cost no more to provide higher bandwidth than lower. But then the Internet providers would not be able to make the huge profit margins on the corporate accounts. In much of Europe, however, the Government rules and regulations required a higher standard of performance for the public in general. In the US, the Government did not want to regulate the performance standards of the private sector with respect to the Internet. Clinton argued that the problem should be solved by the private sector, but if they could or did not, he argued that government should set the rules to solve the problem. The software and hardware companies were driving American digital technology forward, but the few communications company were working to maintain the status quo on bandwidth.
Korea, Finland and other nations which have faster Internet speeds at much less cost are those countries where there are many Internet Service Providers competing. In America there were generally three—the telephone company, the Cable TV, company and a wireless service. In Finland however, there are 15 who compete using the same lines to the home. They all made money, but a much lower profit percentage than in America.
Wales was the founder of Wikipedia, the greatest source of information yet in world history. He mande this statement in reaction to the Erdogon Authoritarian President blocking Wikipedia from the Turkish Internet. The Oresident had objected to an article on The Turkish Armenian Genocide in 1915. Even a century later Erdogan did not want his people to lean the hidotry of what Turkey had done.
She was then the European Commissioner for Competition.
She was then the European Commissioner for Competition.
Reed Eric Hundt is an American attorney who served as chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission from November 29, 1993 to November 3, 1997. Appointed by President Bill Clinton, he served for most of Clinton's first term. He was succeeded by William Kennard.
