We need to build a high-speed

superhighway here in Fayette. And, no, I don't mean the kind paved with

asphalt.

First, some background.

Few would disagree that the

United States is leading the world through a profound change, a transition

from the Industrial Age into the Information Age. Microchips power much

of the planet's commerce, and barring some kind of catastrophe, that impetus

propels us toward a world in which we all depend to some degree on linked

computers to conduct our businesses, our entertainment, our communication

with others.

And I'm not talking only about

the Internet with its ubiquitous e-mail. That cell phone in your car or

handbag is the user's end of a vast computer network; that episode of

"Survivor" you loved likely got to you across air and wires

via a sophisticated computer routing system.

Think of Internet access like a water pipe. Right now, most of us have

a little garden-hose-sized Internet pipe. To stay plugged in at competitive

speeds, we each need a 6-foot-wide water main. Broadband, using cable

modems, is that big pipe.

A few communities recognize

their stake in this all-encompassing shift in technologies. You may have

read about nearby LaGrange, which is offering free or low-priced broadband

hookups to its residents.

Neighboring Newnan is pioneering a high-speed cable TV and Internet service

at rates lower than a competing large commercial cable company. That company

cried foul when the city-owned light and water department got into the

cable business, a publicly subsidized utility competing with private enterprise.

After all, Newnan Light and Water customers had paid for those city-owned

poles and rights of way over many decades, the same rights of way the

for-profit cable company had to pay rent on to string their cable.

It's an interesting ideological

debate. Meanwhile, the world turns.

Newnan is not the first city to get into the cable business, but it may

be among the most aggressive in its competitive attitude and range of

services. It's not just the Disney Channel and local weather forecasts.

While the for-profit company was still offering 40 or 50 channels of cable

entertainment, NL&W undertook a fiber optic cable expansion that offered

subscribers high-speed Internet access as an integral basic service. A

whole new subdivision SummerGrove advertises its homes prewired with high-speed,

broadband Internet services.

NL&W even got Peachtree City approval to run its fiber optic cable

at least 10 miles east of Newnan into the very economic heart of Peachtree

City, the industrial park.

The printing plant owned by Peachtree City Mayor Bob Lenox has easy access

to an increasingly essential broadband service provided by our (competing)

neighbor city to the west.

And that's the irony. Antebellum

Newnan is kicking our self-congratulatory Fayette butts in the competitive

race for 21st century technological leadership in this area.

Newnan is wired, ready to facilitate its citizenry's entry into the new

technology, while Peachtree City and the rest of Fayette hobble into the

new century with slow-to-react leadership and buggy-whip thinking.

We may be a bedroom community right now, but increasingly those bedrooms

must be in homes that allow its occupants access to the information economy.

Communities that fail in this will wither like railroad towns when the

last trains ran out.

It's not just highways 54 and

74 that are clogged, to the detriment of commuters and residents in both

counties. The information highway that clichéd road to the future

is poised to bypass Fayette, unless somebody in leadership starts doing

some leading, instead of just reacting.

Telecommuting will increase, probably in tandem with the time wasted driving

bumper to bumper from here to north Atlanta. Right now, the best we've

got is 56K modems and spotty DSL service. Local telecommuters need high

speed access today, and the need will only become more acute.

Peachtree City and Fayetteville require high-speed cable Internet access,

but the major cable provider AT&T is moving with the speed of a frozen

tree sloth and with all the customer service finesse of a Bronx cab driver.

Who can step in to accomplish this mammoth wiring job? Who can facilitate

getting broadband access to the county's two major cities? Who can lead,

even to the point of setting up a competing, state-of-the-art Internet

access system?

I can think of two candidates, neither of which is a for-profit business,

and one of which may be constrained by its 1930s-era charter.

In my opinion, the two candidates

are local government and Coweta-Fayette Electric Membership Corp.

We pay for water and sewer services, provided by local governments. Many

of us buy our electricity from the EMC.

At some point not too many years from now, broadband Internet access will

be seen nearly as essential as these very basic utility services.

The places that have these services will prosper. The places that don't

will spend their limited funds sweeping tumbleweeds out of their deserted

streets.

Local government must be about more than just reacting to unwanted rezonings

and unpopular annexations. We must get some forward-looking leadership

into city council and county commission slots. It's fine to support a

concept of a build-out population, but what do we do then? What will nurture

and assure this county's continued prosperity?

Call me a heretic. But it looks like the fabled free market might not

be up to this task; it's moving way too slow. More on this later.

Meanwhile, happy browsing.