Google policy analyst Derek Slater—who's so obviously related to Christian Slater—explains how to reshape broadband in the US. Step one: Own the actual pipes that run to your house.


Click to viewSounds crazy, but he cites the historical example of rural telephony, where the public owned the wire, not private companies. It'd work like this: A city or neighborhood would all have fiber run to it at once, and then you'd purchase a share of the fiber and connect to whatever ISP you want. There'd be a connection point where any company could pay to set up equipment and offer service, which is sort of how it works in Amsterdam, Slater explains.

Once a normal thing, it's now a pretty powerful idea, choosing your ISP—in most places, you don't have a choice. There's Comcast. There's Time Warner. Or whoever the local monopoly is. Choice breeds competition: Where do you think cable companies are rolling out fiber-fast internet? It's not a coincidence it's where Verizon or AT&T are offering high-speed internet. And this could be the way to speed up the painfully slow rollout of Godzilla internet in the US, especially in those rural areas. [Fora.TV via digg]


This guy HAS to be related to Christian Slater. I was like, "Hey it looks like Christian Slater giving a lecture." And then the name "Derek SLATER" popped up. Speaking of, did anybody that watch show he had on NBC, where he had the split personality, before it got canceled? Surprisingly not bad.