A few days ago I wrote about Time-Warner's trial of bandwidth consumption charges – and closed with a comment that what the U.S. lacks is a coherent national strategy for broadband networks. Yesterday, Mark Lloyd of the Center for American Progress issued a report that faults the Bush Administration and the Federal Communications Commission for talking about the importance of broadband access in the United States but doing little about it. Lloyd argues that in the face of tomorrow's massive spectrum auction (created by the mandate that all TV stations convert to digital broadcast, freeing up additional bandwidth for other purposes such as national security and consumer use) the U.S. remains at risk and is "less competitive in the global economy . . . [and] ill-prepared to respond to national security threats and natural disasters." It's unlikely that any meaningful progress can be made in the last year of the current presidency. Let's hope that the next president has not only an understanding of how important high-speed communication networks are to the country's safety, health, education, and economy, but that the incoming administration and elected officials in all jurisdictions have a commitment to creating policies and market conditions that our vital to our future.