Ex-FCC broadband director calls for deployment fund
From the National Journal: A former FCC official who played a critical role in the development of the commission’s national broadband plan released a report Wednesday that argues that the federal government should establish a $10 billion fund over 10 years to help ensure all Americans have access to affordable broadband service.
Blair Levin, the former executive director of the FCC’s broadband initiative, noted that “current government programs to assure communication networks are available to all Americans will neither ensure that such networks are available nor encourage adoption.”
Levin wrote the paper for the Aspen Institute, where he now works as a communications and society fellow, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Levin noted that once funds are identified they should be distributed through a “transparent, market-based approach; that funds be provided only to areas where, without such funding, there is no private sector case to provide broadband; and that funds are provided to one provider per area. The criteria should be company and technology agnostic, and the recipients should be accountable for achieving universal broadband access in the relevant geographic areas.”
To help promote adoption of broadband, Levin calls for expanding and revamping the Lifeline and Link Up programs from subsidizing voice services to making broadband affordable to low-income individuals, another proposal also included in the national broadband plan. Read the entire article here.
