Free Press Outlines Roadmap for Broadband Stimulus Success

Today, Free Press released Putting the Angels in the Details: A Roadmap for Broadband Stimulus Success,
a set of specific recommendations for the three federal agencies
charged with overseeing $7.2 billion in broadband stimulus funds.

"The clock is ticking on this historic opportunity to upgrade our digital infrastructure," said S. Derek Turner,
research director of Free Press and author of the policy brief. "But
urgency without accountability will result in waste, fraud and abuse --
shortchanging the promise of a bright broadband future. The public
interest should guide these agencies as they work to put the angels in
the details."

The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, signed into law last
week by President Barack Obama, allocates $4.7 billion to the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for broadband
adoption and deployment in "unserved," "underserved" and low-income
communities; $2.5 billion to the Department of Agriculture's Rural
Utilities Service (RUS) for rural broadband; and directs the Federal
Communications Commission to develop a national broadband strategy.

To ensure that these stimulus programs are successfully implemented, Free Press recommends the following:

• Protect the open Internet: The NTIA and FCC should
  prohibit grant recipients from selling any service that violates open
  Internet principles and should require recipients to offer
  interconnection on a reasonable and nondiscriminatory basis.
• Promote speed: The NTIA should establish
  speed guidelines and benchmarks and require grant applicants to detail
  actual -- not advertised -- network speeds, with priority given to
  next-generation projects.
• Provide clarity: The NTIA and FCC should
  adopt definitions of unserved and underserved areas that are based on
  U.S. Census Bureau geographic boundaries (either census blocks, block
  groups or tracts), and are informed by new FCC broadband data.
• Prevent waste: The NTIA should require grant
  applicants to provide extensive documentation showing how their
  proposed project qualifies as a new investment.
• Gather information: The FCC should immediately initiate proceedings to gather data and ideas to inform the national broadband strategy.
• Focus resources: The NTIA should refocus the
  $350 million currently allocated for state broadband mapping toward
  projects that work to stimulate broadband demand, because the FCC is
  already collecting this data.
• Remove roadblocks: The RUS should eliminate
  current regulations that restrict broadband upgrades, create barriers
  to new entrants and undermine competition.
• Ensure transparency: The NTIA and RUS should
  create a single, publicly accessible online database that hosts all the
  information relevant to the broadband projects funded by the Stimulus
  Act.

"The stimulus package alone will not solve all of our broadband
problems," Turner said. "But it is the crucial first step down the long
road to restoring America as a world Internet leader and making sure
all Americans can share in the benefits of broadband."

Read Putting the Angels in the Details: A Roadmap for Broadband Stimulus Success: https://www.freepress.net/files/Angels_in_the_Details.pdf