Live Blog Here at 7pm ETby: Matt StollerFri Jul 27, 2007 at 19:00 |
| Building out broadband access to everyone in America is not a simple topic, but as Jim Baller notes, the the need for a national broadband strategy in the context of global economic trends is clear. Just what is broadband? Is it current DSL speeds in the US, or 100MB connections like we see in Korea? How can we close the rural divide, and bring full broadband access to those in public housing? There are some interesting public-private partnerships at, and we have Paul Morris of the Utah-based fiber network UTOPIA on how government policy can support such work. And then, of course, there's the issue of money. The Universal Service Fund, the Department of Agriculture, and HUD are all possible places where money for universal access can be found. John Windhausen writes on full deployment and the Universal Service Fund, and Waldo McMillan at One Economy Corporation disussed his organization's 'Broadband in Public Housing' initiative through HUD. And finally, Andrew McNeill of Connect Kentucky described his telecom-backed private-public program, and how it should be expanded to the rest of the country. The live-blog should be interesting. To be honest, I'm quite skeptical of McNeill's broad claims. John Windhausen pointed out that real deployment is going to cost $2000 per household, and the idea that there's a free lunch out there, where industry will pay for full deployment, seems like a stretch. I'd like to see McNeill and Windhausen discuss where they agree, and where they don't. Building out infrastructure in broadband is core to America's future. How it happens, or doesn't, is something that should concern us all. |