The ability to communicate over a distance is such an important freedom that the founding fathers found fit to include it in the original constitution. To wit:
Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution, known as the Postal Clause or the Postal
Power, empowers Congress"To establish Post Offices and post Roads".
The Postal Clause was added to the Constitution primarily to facilitate interstate communication, as well as to
create a source of revenue for the early United States.
There is no way that the founding fathers could have foreseen the technological advances that have created the telephone, telegraph, and the Internet; however, I contend that had they foreseen this progress they may well have felt that these forms of communication be established by the government.
In fact, when the telephone first came on the scene, AT & T was granted a nationwide monopoly in return for regulation by the federal government, as many local government did with local telephone and other utilities. In return for this monopoly and regulation, these industries promised to supply everyone with electricity, telephone and other utilities.
Now we have Internet, which has seemingly become so ubiquitous that hi-speed access is almost a necessity to function in today's society. Unfortunately, there are no regulations that force the suppliers of broadband access that they serve everyone.
This has resulted in a small minority that is left out of modern day communication
