Maybe you have already seen the piece, "Strike Up the Broadband," in the January 26 edition of the Weekly Standard, but I just read it tonight. (I know--I should have better things to do on a Saturday night than reading another article about broadband!)

The author says all the right things about how the FCC needs to quickly clarify its Triennial Review Order broadband rules, for example, by declaring that the ILECs to not have to unbundle new fiber facilities to apartments buildings and businesses. The author sums up by concluding: "Leaving broadband trapped in a regulatory morass skews the incentives for deployment, ultimately hurting American consumers (fewer products) and workers (fewer jobs). It is time for the FCC to keep its promises and bring broadband regulation into the 21st century."

Well, we here at PFF have been saying much the same for six or seven years now. What struck me about the Weekly Standard piece is the author--Jay Lefkowitz. Jay is now a Washington lawyer, but until a few months ago, as the author tag indicates, he was "head of the White House Domestic Policy Council." Wouldn't it have been nice if, in his capacity as Domestic Policy Council chief, Jay had been able to get the Bush Administration to articulate the same deregulatory broadband policy he now articulates and to convey the Administration's support for such a policy to the FCC?

Yep, it would have been. But better late than never. Maybe, from the outside, Jay can phone home and convince the Administration folks that what he says in his article is true--that "the opportunity for a new boom is just around the corner" if only the regulators will implement meaningful regulatory relief.

PS--Whatever you do, do not tell my wife I was doing this on Saturday night.