Thanks to Christopher Mitchell for sending me his editorial on the recent lawsuit in Monticello. (I posted an article on the story a week or so ago.)

I couldn’t agree more with Christopher’s comments. In short, the lawsuit brought about by TDS is unfounded and a waste of time and money.

The more I think about the situation the more annoyed I become because the money they’re wasting is taxpayer money. We all have those friends (well I do anyways) who seem to work so hard at not working. And you wonder why they don’t just spend ten percent of that energy on getting or keeping a job – so that maybe they could buy a round for once. Well, that’s how I’m starting to feel about some incumbents. Instead of coming up with every plan under the sun for not providing ultra fast broadband – why in the heck don’t they just consider providing it?

The other annoying aspect is that these unfounded lawsuits take the focus away from the real goal – getting better connections to recover our position in the global economy. It feels like fighting over the last chair on the Titanic. While in America we’re fighting turf wars over who if anyone is going to provide world class broadband, other countries are coming up with broadband strategies that will leave us in the dust.

So there’s my two cents to go along with Christopher’s two cents. I think my passion for the topic comes at the end of my long stay in Dublin. I have been here since August and we’re going home in a few weeks. It’s been interesting to see how differently things are done here. The focus for the future seems to be more focused on how Ireland can be better and less on maintaining the market status quo.

(That being said, some incumbents are great and I’d be happy to hear from those who are building a successful business by providing ultra fast services and/or are working towards that goal.)