1. Michael L. Katz 15 July 2009

2. Broadband Rankings Suck Michael L. Katz 15 July 2009

3. 3-point plan 4 bein #1 w/o tryin 2 hard Break up rich families.  Divorce may be bad for children, but it’s great for our OECD rankings. Declare business connections to be “home-style.”  If canned soup companies can do it, so can the FCC. Glue your mobile phone to the wall.  Added bonus: it will stimulate the economy by promoting glue sales.

4. What’s wrong with bad metrics? Present a misleading picture. Drive bad decision making.

5. Some Desirable Properties of Performance Metrics Measure something we care about.  Relate to a meaningful welfare goal.  How about people, not facilities? Allow for meaningful comparisons. Implementable at reasonable cost.

6. Four-Point Program for Progress Give up on the idea that we should reduce this important, complex problem to a simple index. Develop measures of individuals’ access and use of modern telecommunications. Collect more demand-side data.  Add questions to government surveys.  Recognize that way more than speed matters. Target programs at low-income consumers.