Presidents jobs bill at odds with DOJ lawsuit against AT&T

President Obama has spent the last two weeks hawking his jobs bill to the American Public. In speeches and tours of plants and schools, the President has pushed for government dollars to be spent repairing the nation's infrastructure, thus putting Americans back to work. In large part, we support his plan, and his efforts to push the bill through Congress.

Yet, there is a way for private industry to put between 370,000 and 770,000 Americans back to work with good paying construction jobs improving the nation's infrastructure that will last for at least five years. According to a report by the audit and consulting arm of Deloitte LLC, cellular carriers could create the above mentioned jobs building out their 4G networks. The proposed AT&T / T-Mobile merger alone would create 100,000 of these new jobs. This does not include the 5000 overseas jobs AT&T has promised to return to this country from overseas.

Now, here's the rub. While President Obama is touting his jobs bill to put people back to work, his Department of Justice (DOJ), run by Eric Holder, along with key members of his party are stifling the private investment initiative that would put Americans back to work.

During his keynote address before the Internet Innovation Alliance on September 13, former Pennsylvania governor, Ed Rendell touched on the above mentioned private investment figures that mobile broadband expansion will create. He also cited why the mobile broadband infrastructure is at a critical crossroads in our country. Consider the following numbers put forth during Mr. Rendell's speech.

• Video viewed on mobile devices increased 40% in 2010 when compared to 2009.
• By the end of 2011, video will represent 60% of all mobile traffic.
• You Tube now accounts for 17% of all mobile traffic.
• As of December, 2010, 31% of all Americans own a smartphone
• AT&T's mobile broadband traffic increased 8000% during the past four years.
• Spectrum shortages could inhibit economic growth.

While it would seem we are only looking at the entertainment value of mobile broadband, consider the points put forward by Jessica Zufolo at the same symposium. Ms. Zufolo is charged with insuring that under served, or rural areas of the country have the same access to broadband service as heavily populated urban centers. While video is churning out huge amounts of data traffic, it is more important to insure that everyone in every section of the country has an equal economic playing field when it comes to Internet connectivity.

In addition, network hardware giant Cisco issued its latest Visual Networking Index report during the late spring of this year. In the report, Cisco predicts mobile broadband usage will surpass wireline data transfer by the year 2015. In short, we have four short years to vastly improve our nation's mobile broadband capacity, or fall farther behind. According to Mr. Rendell, we are currently ranked thirteenth in the world.

We should point out the Mr. Rendell is now a parter with the Philadelphia law firm, Ballard-Sparh. The former governor stated that he has an agreement with his firm that he will only take on the cases that he believes in. One such case is AT&T's fight against what seems to be an ever growing litany of lawsuits aimed at derailing the company's merger with T-Mobile.

Whether you agree with the AT&T / T-Mobile merger, or not, the above statements should be a wake up call to those whose actions seek to inhibit the growth of mobile broadband. For the record, mobile broadband is as important to the nation's infrastructure as the road, bridge, and building projects set forth in the President's jobs bill. The most glaring difference between the two; broadband build out will be accomplished with mostly private investment, while the jobs bill relies heavily on federal spending.

The above two projects are a microcosm of the administration's first two years on the job; one or more parts of the administration seem to be at odds with the President's wishes. While the Tea Party wing of the GOP keeps getting blamed - rightfully so - for stifling the administration's plans, this is one piece of the President's agenda for improving the nation's infrastructure that could improve the economy, put people to work, and help America keep pace as we move int the future. If only his own party would cooperate.