At something called the Personal Democracy Forum held this week in New York, Columbia Law Professor Tim Yu expressed his support for a national broadband policy by decrying what he called the high price of broadband in the U.S.

“We've just accepted that bandwidth is something that American families will spend hundreds of dollars on a month," he said.

Huh? Hundreds of dollars a month for broadband? Who’s paying that?

Right now, I can get broadband from Comcast -- although it’s their Economy service -- plus phone and cable TV, all for $69.99. Granted that’s an introductory rate but even if it doubles after the first year, I’d be paying $140 a month for all three services, not hundreds of dollars a month just for broadband.

In this market, AT&T will sell you a $41-a-month service that includes basic voice, no long-distance and 3 Megabit per second broadband Internet -- I know because that’s what I pay to keep my son’s college apartment connected.

Many other urban markets are the same. Qwest Communications sells Qwest Connect Titanium, a 20 Megabit per second service, for $46.99 if you also buy their phone service and $51.99 if you don’t.

Many industry analysts are concerned, in fact, that competitive bundles have been too quickly price commoditized, leaving service providers to recoup their multi-billion dollar network upgrades by selling extras – including services they haven’t yet invented.

The irony here is that I agree with Prof. Yu that we need a national broadband policy that addresses the real issue – rural and exurban areas where broadband isn’t available or isn’t as dirt cheap as it is in competitive areas. But that policy should focus on the real problem and not be implemented based on hyperbolic claims that paint a darker picture than what actually exists.

FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein got it right when he said the telecom industry and the government need to work together to find a mutually beneficial approach to the U.S. broadband penetration issue.

Bashing the broadband providers – Yu called them a cartel – only prompts the kind of response Verizon President and COO Denny Strigl had last week for broadband critics. At this point, we need cooperation not hyperbole.

E-mail me at cwilson3@telephonyonline.com.