Broadband Mapping Bill Gets Renewed Push in Senate Committee

“We can bring in better data,” said Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen. Costs don’t have to be “huge” if demand stimulates more private investment. One way to increase demand is provide online applications that can help people with finances, employment, and health care, said Rey Ramsey, CEO of technology non-profit One Economy, which focuses on getting technology services to low-income communities. People need to understand how broadband can help them, Ramsey said. “That would encourage adoption.”

“Universal broadband adoption would add $500 billion to the U.S. economy and create more than a million new jobs,” said Inouye, who urged passage of a bill (S-1492) that would provide $200 million in grants over five years for state mapping efforts. The legislation has bipartisan support and was included in a package Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., tried to pass before the summer recess. That version of the legislation reflects House-Senate consensus, so it’s possible Congress could move the bill separately or it might be included in the package of proposals slated for the continuing resolution to fund the budget, industry sources say. But no strategy is set yet.

Inouye said broadband rankings, “though controversial in some quarters,” show a decline in U.S. broadband performance. This year for the first time China “has a larger number of broadband subscribers than the United States,” Inouye said. “By some measures, Asian and European countries have high-speed connections that are twenty times faster than ours and for just half the cost.”

Jobs in rural America could be saved if the nation had more ubiquitous broadband, said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. Broadband is often the only way to get health services to remote parts of Alaska, said Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who has stepped down from his ranking member post while he’s awaiting trial on charges of federal ethics law violations. Stevens said he introduced a bill that would allow small rural health providers the ability to participate in the universal service fund. Right now, the fund supports only larger providers, Stevens said. The bill also would require the FCC to report to Congress on its system of tracking the fund’s costs. Inouye said he would co-sponsor the legislation.

Cohen said the mapping bill is a beginning step on the road to greater broadband deployment. “We need real dramatic action now,” he said. Better definitions of speeds are needed to make surveys more useful, he said. The government’s definition of broadband, set by the FCC at 768 kbps, is behind global standards, Cohen said. Mapping legislation would require the commission to do more analysis of broadband prices, technology, applications and consumer usage. And it also would ask the Government Accountability Office to study “best practices for reporting broadband price, speed and other critical issues.”

The American Library Association told the committee the universal service fund’s E-rate program has helped libraries across the country provide Internet services to people who otherwise couldn’t afford it. The association is helping train libraries in the E-rate application process and said it hoped the FCC would adopt some suggestions it has made to improve the program. But nearly half of libraries say their broadband connections are inadequate to serve growing user demand. The American Telemedicine Association said broadband is essential for health care services as hospital networks try to interconnect with each other to provide the most updated records, said CEO Jonathan Linkous. - Anne Veigle