| Editorial: Lend Bill Smith |
| Tuesday, 15 September 2009 00:00 |
|
One reason the broadband stimulus will fail at reaching the unserved is they have lawyers doing an engineer's job. Bill Smith, senior AT&T engineer, understands networks in a way far different from the lawyers, economists and the like in D.C… Most of the D.C. folk are extraordinarily bright and public spirited. Except for Pepper, nearly none of them have adequate understanding of broadband networks and that's one reason policy has been so weak. Randall's promised to share information with D.C.. The semi-conductor folk have learned lending employees is a great way to do that. Looked at from an engineer's point of view, $7.2B is enough to reach 70-85% of the unserved; playing the usual policy games, we'll be lucky to get a third of that. D.C. needs to listen to the engineers and adjust policy to the facts on the ground. Bill is not only one of the best, but he's shown that he can communicate with policy people. In BellSouth days, he often represented the company in Washington and also on Wall Street. Bill's has a demanding job at the world's third largest network, but if you need a job done well ask a busy person. Randall seems sincere in reaching out to the new FCC, and providing great technical support may be unconventional but I think an outstanding gesture. Five days a month of Bill's time training the wonks and answering their questions could make a major difference. ... |
