Senate Kicks Off Series of Infrastructure Hearings With Focus on Broadband | Broadcasting & Cable: The Senate Commerce Committee kicked off a series of infrastructure hearings Tuesday with one focused on broadband, including a big focus on collecting accurate date about where broadband is, and more importantly, isn't. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) presided, saying he was greatly encouraged by the President's support for programs to increase broadband infrastructure in rural areas. While the President said getting broadband to farmers was a priority, he didn't actually earmark any funds for broadband in his infrastructure plan, though he did say that $50 million would be going to rural infrastructure, with states free to use all or part of that for broadband. Congress is currently weighing the best way to deploy that service. Democrats like to factor cost and underserved communities in the equation, while Republicans -- and ISPs -- want the money targeted to the unserved, rather than overbuilding existing private investment with public money.
The adage that a problem cannot be solved until it's properly defined certainly applies here. America doesn't have a problem of communities being "underserved" by advanced telecommunications. The real problem is that it has failed to put in place policy and planning over recent decades to support the timely modernization of legacy metallic telephone and cable company infrastructure designed to support analog voice telephone service and cable TV to digital fiber optic infrastructure connecting all the nation's homes, businesses and institutions for the Internet era.
It's not accurate to describe the problem as one of entire "underserved communities." The real issue is existing public policy that does not support universal service but rather the redlining of discrete neighborhoods and even parts of roads and streets by landline ISPs in both rural and non-rural areas of the nation.
No comments:
Post a Comment