June 2009 Archives

As I have mentioned in previous entries I am responsible in my organization for following the Broadband Stimulus funding part of the ARRA. The latest expectation is that the requirements for grant funds will be published in July. As part of the process I have been reading the many articles and blogs on this topic along with the endless white papers and studies that are being published. The more I listen and the more I read, the more I am reminded of the movie Field of Dreams and the tag line "If you build it he will come". But in the broadband field of dreams will he come?

The Broadband Stimulus funding is approximately 7.2 billion dollars. While some have described this as a down payment on broadband investment, I am becoming fearful that much of this funding will go towards projects that will build many broadband "bridges to nowhere". Some questions that I continue to ask that no one has any real answers for:

• Is the issue being addressed availability of broadband or affordability? Has the analysis been done to document the need or are we in our haste trusting perception?
• Once built, how will the systems be sustained? Maintained? Upgraded? Where will the funding come from for the basic O & M costs and what will the plan be for insuring that 5 years from now the infrastructure built can grow to meet the demands of its users?
• Will projects that get funded build out to areas that lack any sort of infrastructure or will they continue to add to urban areas that already have capacity? A recent audit report by the Office of the Inspector General on the Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service Broadband Loan Guarantee Program does not paint an encouraging picture of how broadband stimulus projects might get funded to address availability issues.

The analogy has been made that the nation's broadband infrastructure is comparable in importance to the interstate highway system. I could not agree more with this analogy and am very supportive of building this infrastructure in support of our security, economic, and educational needs going forward. However I fear that in the case of the ARRA funding we might be putting the cart before the horse. What is our national broadband strategy? How will the projects that are funded as part of the ARRA fit in with and support a national strategy? I believe that we will all be better served in the long run if we take a little time to first define our strategy. There was a plan in place for the interstate system so why can't we have a broadband strategy in place before we fund broadband projects to ensure the goals of the strategy are being met by these projects?

To quote Yogi Berra, "If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else."