Unless we ask the right questions, we might end up spending state and federal dollars on the wrong priority — putting in faster broadband when we really ought to make sure more of us have access to high speed internet.

It’s well known that the FCC is having so-called “stakeholder meetings” with the big phone and cable companies about their proposed “third way” to reclassify broadband Internet and codify net neutrality rules, which would allow the FCC to protect the Internet for consumers. These meetings, coming in the wake of the court case that essentially took away the FCC’s authority to protect the Internet and implement the National Broadband Plan, have included all the big phone and cable giants – AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and the like – but have excluded consumer groups who are advocating for protection against these corporate behemoths.

Most observers see these meetings as the prelude to the collapse. The FCC will meet with the big corporations, they’ll come to an agreement behind closed doors, and eventually, the FCC will put forward net neutrality and other regulations that are either so full of loopholes as to be nonfunctional or absent altogether. In other words, most people think these meetings are where deals to sell out the Internet to big companies are made.

It’s certainly possible that these meetings are exactly that, despite denials from the FCC. But what if they’re something different?

I got a call yesterday from a telecommunications lobbyist who had an interesting and very plausible theory: What if Julius Genachowski, chairman of the FCC, is simply running out the clock?