IPcentral Weblog
  The DACA Blog

Friday, February 6, 2009

 
Further Oddities in the "Broadband Stimulus" Bill
(previous | next)
 

I wrote recently about the dangers lurking in the House version of the "broadband Stimulus" bill. Critically, the House bill fails to define essential terms in the proposed grant program, leaving award decisions largely to the discretion of the administrating agency; by "discretion" I mean political whim.

The Senate version of the bill does little better. The Senate, it appears, would like the administrating agency to consult with state officials in determining those areas that are eligible to receive funding under the program, thus adding yet another layer of potential political horse trading.

Odder still, the Senate version would limit eligibility to receive broadband stimulus funds to state and local governments, non-profits, and public-private partnerships. Huh? Is this about pushing broadband to rural, underserved communities, or is it about bailing out bankrupt, mismanaged states? If the former, the eligibility restrictions in the bill necessarily undermine the potential success of the program. A person who has fallen overboard cares not who responds, so long as someone gets a life-preserver to them quickly. Why would the ship's captain order in advance that only certain crew members may assist drowning passengers?

To maximize the practical impact of broadband stimulus, the program should be technologically-neutral and applicant-agnostic. That is, decisions should be made based on who can best and fastest deliver high-speed services to those in need, not based on arbitrary criteria reflecting only the subjective preferences of the Senate.

posted by W. Kenneth Ferree @ 11:03 AM | Broadband , Capitol Hill , Communications , Universal Service

Share |

Link to this Entry | Printer-Friendly

Post a Comment:





 
Blog Main
RSS Feed  
Recent Posts
  EFF-PFF Amicus Brief in Schwarzenegger v. EMA Supreme Court Videogame Violence Case
New OECD Study Finds That Improved IPR Protections Benefit Developing Countries
Hubris, Cowardice, File-sharing, and TechDirt
iPhones, DRM, and Doom-Mongers
"Rogue Archivist" Carl Malamud On How to Fix Gov2.0
Coping with Information Overload: Thoughts on Hamlet's BlackBerry by William Powers
How Many Times Has Michael "Dr. Doom" Copps Forecast an Internet Apocalypse?
Google / Verizon Proposal May Be Important Compromise, But Regulatory Trajectory Concerns Many
Two Schools of Internet Pessimism
GAO: Wireless Prices Plummeting; Public Knowledge: We Must Regulate!
Archives by Month
  September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
  - (see all)
Archives by Topic
  - A La Carte
- Add category
- Advertising & Marketing
- Antitrust & Competition Policy
- Appleplectics
- Books & Book Reviews
- Broadband
- Cable
- Campaign Finance Law
- Capitalism
- Capitol Hill
- China
- Commons
- Communications
- Copyright
- Cutting the Video Cord
- Cyber-Security
- DACA
- Digital Americas
- Digital Europe
- Digital Europe 2006
- Digital TV
- E-commerce
- e-Government & Transparency
- Economics
- Education
- Electricity
- Energy
- Events
- Exaflood
- Free Speech
- Gambling
- General
- Generic Rant
- Global Innovation
- Googlephobia
- Googlephobia
- Human Capital
- Innovation
- Intermediary Deputization & Section 230
- Internet
- Internet Governance
- Internet TV
- Interoperability
- IP
- Local Franchising
- Mass Media
- Media Regulation
- Monetary Policy
- Municipal Ownership
- Net Neutrality
- Neutrality
- Non-PFF Podcasts
- Ongoing Series
- Online Safety & Parental Controls
- Open Source
- PFF
- PFF Podcasts
- Philosophy / Cyber-Libertarianism
- Privacy
- Privacy Solutions
- Regulation
- Search
- Security
- Software
- Space
- Spectrum
- Sports
- State Policy
- Supreme Court
- Taxes
- The FCC
- The FTC
- The News Frontier
- Think Tanks
- Trade
- Trademark
- Universal Service
- Video Games & Virtual Worlds
- VoIP
- What We're Reading
- Wireless
- Wireline
Archives by Author
PFF Blogosphere Archives
We welcome comments by email - look for a link to the author's email address in the byline of each post. Please let us know if we may publish your remarks.
 










The Progress & Freedom Foundation