According to Broadcasting & Cable, Blair Levin is not thrilled with the FCC’s submissions from the public and industry on the national broadband plan. Apparently there are lots of great ideas but not many are efficient or doable.

I’ve read a lot of the recommendations and I have to say my 5 year-old daughter’s birthday wish list was more reasonable than some. There’s an old tech axiom about choosing good, fast or cheap when designing a project. I think people are forgetting that here – or for some reason thinking it doesn’t apply. It does. I wish it didn’t but it does and in today’s economy I think the safe money is on cheap being non-negotiable.

It reminds me of a research report I posted on in June where 78 percent were against taxing the Internet (or Internet transactions) and 63 percent thought the government should shut down terrorist-themed sites. Well again that’s great but how are you going to pay for the government to scan and shut down sites if not through taxes.

I see the struggle with the Minnesota Task Force too. Members know the report will be compared to other state plans and they want it to be a masterpiece – but each member has a different view on what’s important – good, fast or cheap. (I think you can replace good with ubiquitous and it is a super simplified view of the discussions.)

Maybe we need three plan outlines – one for each good-fast-cheap-pick-2 options. It might help all of us be more realistic about what is efficient and doable.

Towards that end I noted that the Task Force did mention both actionable items and the need to have measurable goals last week – both are a step in the right direction.