Seasonal slowdown

There have been years when I personally have bemoaned the fact that the telecom industry ignored the dog days of summer and kept zipping along, generating news and industry trends at the same frenzied rate as in March or September. This year, however, I'm more concerned with the possibility that this industry, along with others, will, in fact, suffer some slow times.

It makes sense that with more U.S. families facing foreclosure than at any time in our history and with jobs disappearing as well, plunging more people into economic distress, sales of services not deemed critical will fall off.

But here's what doesn't make sense: At a time when the prices of a barrel of oil and the gas it is used to produce seem to have no ceiling, telecom services should be considered critical. If the ability to communicate and to navigate the Internet doesn't have that all-important status, this industry is doing something wrong.

Every aspect of our lives can be made better through more effective use of telecommunications — working, shopping, health care, financial management, job seeking, staying in touch with family, education and even entertainment, which is always a necessity in hard times. Quality of life can be improved infinitely, economic development and education can reach every geographic corner cost-effectively, and our environment can be better protected by the elimination of unnecessary travel and excessive burning of fossil fuels.

There is major work to be done, much of it political, to begin driving home how critical not just the telecommunications infrastructure is, but also the diverse applications it can support. I don't think I'm overstating the case when I say a more robust set of telecom services is critical to the future of both our country and the global economy. Yet, for all their plans to reverse the U.S. economic slowdown, neither major presidential candidate seems to be thinking along these lines to any extent whatsoever.

I don't know whether to say shame on them or shame on us. I do think we have more than a summer's worth of work cut out for us, however. Let's get started.