What is 'Better Broadband' and Who Should Pay for It?

People will disagree about what "better broadband" might mean, but it probably remains the case that "more" is better. There still seems to be huge disagreement about how to fund 'much better' broadband, though. Better broadband. 'What does the customer want to do?' asked Jack Weixel, who heads up Google's service provider markets (enterprise) efforts. Better broadband means that users are able to do the things they want to do, he said. 'At the end of the day, speed does matter,' said Weixel.

Raymond Henagen, CEO, Rock Port Telephone, had another practical perspective on faster broadband: 'who is going to pay as users keep demanding more capacity?"

Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin noted that "speed matters," where it comes to broadband. Specifically, faster broadband leads to applications innovation. Developers always create applications that take advantage of faster broadband, and people seem to learn to rely on those apps.

That basically is why Google is building a symmetrical 1-Gbps fiber network in Kansas City, Kansas. Google wants to see what will happen once that level of broadband is available to developers and users.

What is 'Better Broadband' and Who Should Pay for It?