The U.S. is an E-Nation
This is the biggest load of crap.
As of August 2008, 96.81% of US workers connected to the Internet with broadband
As of Q2 2008 Household Broadband Penetration was 67.14%
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0809/
To Compare The buildout of highways or Rail Road by the U.S Gov to adding more bandwidth is just an excuse for a national broadband tax
Also we are the best users of broadband
http://gigaom.com/2008/01/30/us-makes-the-best-use-of-its-broadband/
What is the future. Bleak. People think we are going to get government funded WiMAx to every home
What we are going to get is
1) National Internet Tax
2) Further Regulation of the internet
3) Monitoring of traffic and restrictions of Usage. Look for the fights over political dollars dictating actions. Just as we do with NPR, and NEA
4) Stifling innovation. Look for Large government boards that will take 5 years to come to terms on standards for technology that is 10 years out of date. Think ATT 1981
5) Greater monopolization. With the heavy hand of government in the mix only well capitalized and connected companies will survive. Focus on Lobbying and not innovation.
Every Industry the government has tried to help they have destroyed. The success of our technology and internet industry is directly due to it being among the least regulated industries. Even then, broadband deployment has had issues because of government regulations at the CLEC level.
Every day the future for the U.S Diminishes.