Together, two articles in the April 5 Baller Herbst email headlines combined to offer a glimpse of a pragmatic, incremental national broadband policy.

Everyone is familiar with the “glass half full, glass half empty” metaphor on optimism. While most broadband proponents argue that the glass is nowhere near half-full here in most of the U.S., providers advertise these same services as glasses spilling over with capability, though always with asterisks and fine print disavowals.

The first article that caught my eye is a blog entry that promotes a broadband goal that seems a good incremental step — a guaranteed 5Mb symmetrical service. This bandwidth can support many videoconferencing applications, especially with improvements in video software and premise equipment. If every city and town in the U.S. had this service available, it would be a great improvement.

The second article points out the features of satellite Internet Service from Hughes. Here in Minnesota, we can also point to Wild Blue as a major satellite player. Up and downstream speeds are increasing and the providers can serve more customers per satellite. While prices are still high compared to wired services, this solution works for many rural residents and small businesses enabling their rural lifestyle. Public policy could easily focus on affordability.

This incremental approach may not satisfy those calling for Gb connections to every home, but accomplishing the 5Mb goal would be something to celebrate as a significant improvement from where we now stand.