Albert Paschall
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Somedays:
C:\REWIND/PA-TECHNOLOGY
by Albert Paschall
C:\1972/TIMES-HERALD/NORRISTOWN, PA: The first computer
I ever worked at was as big and heavy as a refrigerator. It operated
from a series of ‘C’ codes that I could never remember. Every command
started with C: something or another followed by slashes, commas and
dots. They were changed so often that I had to write my cheat sheets
in pencil so I could keep up with them every day. Technology in Pennsylvania
has advanced way beyond those days but Democrats in Harrisburg seem
to want to take us back to those complicated, clunky days of old. Market
driven technologies work for consumers while state sponsored and government
protected technologies fail. The histories are clear just take a look
at the ‘C’ codes.
C:\1948/MAHANOY-CITY/LEHIGH VALLEY\PENNSYLVANIA: In 1948 John Walson
an employee of Pennsylvania Power and Light buys a General Electric
franchise store with his wife. They can’t sell televisions
because reception is so bad down in the valley. Mr. Walson puts an
antenna on a mountain top and runs a new form of wire, coaxial cable,
down to the town. Reception improves dramatically, television sales
soar but the big demand is for the new service: cable TV. Walson
and his partner, Milton Shapp, go on to wire Pennsylvania’s
rural areas to get clear, crisp TV reception. Shapp is elected governor
of Pennsylvania in 1971.
C:\1983/MICROSOFT\BILL GATES: In the late 1970’s a slightly
dyslexic kid gets thrown out of the house for taking apart his father’s
computer. Frustrated over the complicated ‘C’ codes he
was looking for an easier way to make them work. By 1983 he figured
out that if he combined them into symbols, and clicked on them with
a wand he called a mouse, he could easily get into any computer program.
When Bill Gates’ mouse opened Microsoft Windows to consumers
in 1990 the world gained access to technology.
C:/1993/ALEXANDRIA,VA/QUALCAM/AOL: Steve Case, founder and CEO of
Qualcam Computer Services changes the name of his consumer friendly
online service to America Online. 43 million American households
became members spurring Europe Online and leading AOL to buy Time-Warner.
The merger leads to the first fusion of online technology with broadcast
and print subscriptions through DSL connections.
C:\OCTOBER-2003/COMCAST/3RD-QUARTER-RESULTS: The president of the
state’s largest monopoly, Comcast Cable Systems, reports that “demand
for our high speed Internet service is stronger than ever. We added
more than 472,000 new high-speed Internet customers, a 39% increase
from last year’s third quarter results.” Comcast also
reported operating clash flow growth of $1.6 billion. Through Mr.
Walson’s pioneering efforts cable is the dominant provider
of TV and Internet services in rural Pennsylvania, as long as you
are willing to pay for it. Unlike other utilities: electricity, telephone
and water that are regulated by the state, cable is regulated by
the towns that it serves. Towns it pays royalties to based on subscriber’s
demands and costs.
C:\NOVEMMBER-2003\DEMOCRATS/PA-REWIND/TECHNOLOGY-HARRISBURG,PA: – While
technology has been advancing in the state, House and Senate Democrats
don’t think that growth is fast enough. They want to create
a whole new bureaucracy called the Pennsylvania Telecommunications
Commission. It would strip the Public Utilities Commission of its
oversight of telephone costs and rules. Consumers would no longer
have right to address telephone issues before the PUC. It would cost
the Commonwealth’s taxpayers another $3.6 billion for basic
telephone service. To Democrats it’s just another cost of doing
business in Pennsylvania, just another layer of government charged
with implementing new technologies. Something a government has never
done and something Pennsylvania’s will never be capable of
doing. In the meantime the cable monopolies get off the hook. It’s
far more profitable for them to provide entertainment services in
urban markets than basic communications in rural areas. With the
same regulation that the state imposes on other utilities there isn’t
a reason that the state’s cable TV companies couldn’t
supply inexpensive Internet services to every rural area in Pennsylvania
and they could do it today.
C:/2013/PENNSYLVANIA/SOMEWHERE OUT THERE: The real problem with the
Democratic plan for a Pennsylvania Telecommunications Commission is
that no one knows what new technology may come along. While the taxpayers
are burdened with $3.6 billion in new taxes, someday there will be
another John Walson or Bill Gates with an idea that will change the
way technology and communications work. Digital wireless is already
doing that in an unregulated environment and these services will grow.
If the Democrats prevail the state will be rewinding 30 years of technological
advances. All we will be is $3.6 billion poorer, saddled with a new
bureaucracy that will live forever as another burden on doing business
and creating jobs in Pennsylvania.
Albert Paschall
Senior Commentator
The Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research, Inc.
