like AT&T that are laying off people just because Wall Street is eat up with greed, there is no need to get excired about these investments. As long as these investments are going to publicly traded companies, the money will just get sucked up and redistibuted to the greedy investors and top management.
The broadband infrastructure will need to be nationalized if we are to see any real improvements. Just like the interstate system. If the interstate system was run by private enterprise, we would be low on the list in that respect as well.
There are some things that are too important to the well being of this nation to trust to Corporate America. Profit motive is one thing but it has been supplanted by pure greed. Corporations can no longer be trusted with the future of America's broadband.
The 21st Century Tech President said Saturday morning that the U.S. will launch new investments in its infrastructure - including a boost of broadband accessibility - as part of a larger strategy to revitalize the economy and create jobs. (Techmeme) 
Specifically, President-elect Barack Obama said broadband connections need to be made widely available to school children and hospitals. Hospitals should be able to connect to each other via the Internet. He said:
It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they’ll get that chance when I’m president - because that’s how we’ll strengthen America’s competitiveness in the world.
Bravo! It was just days ago that a coalition of technology and telecom companies, along with public interest and other groups, called on Washington to establish a National Broadband Strategy for 2009. It was also just days ago that the government declared that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007. According to a report by Agence France-Presse, 533,000 jobs in the U.S. were lost in November, sending the jobless rate to 6.7 percent, the highest since October 1993. The report notes that 2.7 million people have become jobless since the recession began.
“We will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s,” Obama said in his weekly radio and YouTube address. He said the plan, which includes making public buildings more energy-efficient and building new roads and bridges, will “save or create” 2.5 million jobs.
