We are in the silly season of American politics. The presumptive nominee for the Republican nomination, former Massachusetts Governor Willard Romney may be facing incumbent President Barack Obama in the November general election. Mr. Romney comes from the tech-prevalent state of Massachusetts, yet has failed to leverage in his campaign any experience he has with the benefits of technology in his home state.

It’s a missed opportunity. According to the CTIA, wireless data traffic has increased 123% over last year. In 2010 there were 62 million mobile-to-mobile devices worldwide. By 2020, that number, according to data cited by CTIA, is expected to top 16 billion.

CTIA also addressed the economy, concluding that for every dollar invested in wireless broadband, $7-$10 dollars would be added to our gross domestic product. Along with growth in GDP would come an additional 771,000 jobs added for the purpose of deploying 4G networks. These jobs would pay on average 50% more than jobs in other production industries.

Talking economic growth without mentioning the nation’s biggest influence on economic growth is like bringing a gun to a gun fight without any bullets.

From the corner of Lee Street and Ralph Abernathy all the way to Donnelly and Abernathy is just under one mile in length. Along that stretch are at least fifteen hair salons and barbershops. Goodness gracious, do we really need that many? Probably not. So why do we have them? Because of ease of entry for one thing. Spend a few months in beauty school, get a barber’s license, and rent out a joint and you’re in business. Voila, fifteen hair salons.

The broadband business doesn’t work that way. The technical, legal, and financial barriers provide huge hurdles, hurdles that the likes of Free Press failed to point out in a recent blog post ranting against the Verizon, Spectrum Co. deal. Free Press argues that the deal, which would see Verizon purchase chunks of spectrum from a number of cable companies in exchange for an agreement to cross sell each others’ products, would harm competition for broadband.

In addition, Free Press strongly promotes that municipal governments get into the broadband provision game and offer a competitive alternative to cable modem and DSL offerings.

What Free Press doesn’t share with its readers is that these same municipalities are the reason why smaller broadband providers have a hard time entering a franchise area and providing services. Onerous franchise agreements and a three-year review period are enough to discourage new entrants. One need look no further than the biggest bottleneck to local competition, the municipals.

Oh well, I guess they prefer give out barbers’ licenses.

The Federal Communications Commission today posted comments filed by the National Tribal Telecommunications Association in WC Docket No. 12-23, Advancing Broadband Availability Through Digital Literacy Training.

In its comments, the NTTA expressed its desire that the FCC focus on affordability of broadband and that Native American communities were still in need of access to voice telephony.

That any community is still in dire need of access to voice dial tone telephone service is ironic given the high telephone subscriber penetration American households have been experiencing for the past two decades. According to NTTA’s comments, 30% of Native American communities lack voice dial tone access.

NTTA also supports modifying Linkedup and Lifeline programs in order to enable Native Americans to access broadband services. According to NTTA, only 10% of Native American communities have access to broadband.

The Jump Start Our Business Start-Ups Act of 2012 provides a couple positives for broadband adoption. First, for the entrepreneur, it means that in less than 270 days, she can go to a Securities and Exchange Commission-approved website, post investor relations details about her business, and raise up to $1,000,000.00 in capital from multiple investors.

For investors, having broadband access further democratizes the world of investment. As one commentator recently noted, instead of throwing a friend or family member a few bucks and a couple well wishes on their business, small investors now find themselves in a position to own equity stakes in emerging businesses partly due to the access broadband provides.

On Friday my good friend Janita Poe officially launches her new blog talk radio show, “The Janita Poe Show.” Janita will be using this platform to educate and inform Atlanta about the issues that impact the Black community in particular as well as Americans in general.

Miguel Lloyd with his program, “Life Full Circle” is also doing the same thing. He covers sports, religion, and politics.

The beauty of their programs is that not only can Janita and Miguel get their messages out to residents of Atlanta, and in Miguel’s case Jacksonville, but to the entire planet. Why? The reason is because of broadband.

Whether by hard wire or wireless, broadband access can give us access to these diverse voices. The platforms used by Janita and Miguel means that they can bypass some of the barriers to entry traditional radio imposes on thought drivers who wish to get their messages out to the public.

Broadband is not a panacea for the road blocks imposed by traditional media, but it is facilitating access to another important alternative for news and information.