If I was the broadband czar …

Somebody asked me the other day what I would do if I was the “czar” of the broadband stimulus. They figured with my focus on the federal government, maybe I had some special insight into making the stimulus a success.

Personally, I don’t think it takes special insight so much as recognition of some basic, common-sense principles to make the more than $7 billion investment provide some worthwhile payoff. Cynics may ask when the last time was the government relied on common-sense principles, but in my czardom, we would have them. For instance, Principle Number One is clear rules. Any service provider or other company that wants to participate should know what it needs to do and by when. As the stock market has always shown, business hates uncertainty, so clarity would be the first priority...