As President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take office, an onslaught of groups and associations is calling for a national broadband strategy. Obama wants to include such a policy as part of his economic stimulus plan, as do Congressional Democrats and FCC commissioners. Indeed, the FCC will be key to implementing a national broadband strategy and helping roll out incentives for service providers to build in areas they’ve so far avoided. Kelly Teal, business and regulatory editor for xchange, caught up with FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, whose name is in the running for the agency’s chairman position, in Phoenix on Dec. 29 to discuss how a national broadband strategy might work.
Adelstein: “We’ve really fallen behind as world leaders in broadband deployment. We should be No. 1 ... but we are not. As a country that has led the world in economic growth through its technology we’ve fallen behind. We should be No. 1 by any measure, and anything that we can do to restore our place as a worldwide communications leader, we need to do that urgently.
“We need to keep economic activity within our borders and not allow ourselves to be leapfrogged by other countries that have dedicated national efforts under way.”
xchange: How would the strategy work exactly?
Adelstein: “We’re seeing an increasing consensus by large providers, small providers ... for more of a public-private partnership to get this done. I have a pile of different proposals sitting on my desk as to how to implement a national broadband strategy. What we need now is the leadership and will to implement them. For service providers, there are ideas about tax credits, the potential for loans and grants to be extended, there is the possibility of direct assistance in a new federal program — all this is being contemplated as part of the stimulus package more immediately; but in terms of a long-term approach, all of these can work together. There are different views about whether tax credits are preferable to a grant or loan approach, but one thing is clear — that any approach is preferable to nothing.”
xchange: How might Universal Service Fund reform tie into this?
Adelstein: “Universal Service is clearly already necessary for companies to have the security that they’ll be able to recover the costs of their investments in broadband networks. Even though Universal Service doesn’t currently underwrite broadband, there’s policy that allows companies to use Universal Service for networks that can provide broadband, and they do. I think without Universal Service we would have far greater problems in rural America than we have today. Universal Service is a critical component of any national broadband agenda. We’re reviewing Universal Service from top to bottom to determine how to make it more efficient — it could be one of the best ways to get broadband out to rural parts of the country.”