Broadband Changes

The legislature in their infinite wisdom has voted that allowing the University of Wisconsin to extend their computer network throughout the State using Federal money will somehow harm the telecommunications industry and must be stopped. There is this belief among the Republicans that if the private sector can do something not only should they do it but they will and at a affordable price. Well, broadband is sort of like rural electrification. The companies are looking at the cost of extending fiber optic line across miles and miles of land which has no customers. It is just not going to happen and is not happening. This is where the idea to extend the network came from. People who live in rural areas (some not far from Madison) and smaller towns are unable to get high speed internet access which is important for education and businesses to create jobs. This is just another of the many laws recently passed that I don't understand. Providing lower cost internet to the rural parts of the State makes sense to me.