Broadband Stimulus Notes
The FCC’s national broadband plan should be built around social and economic goals, not tied to the business models of incumbent telecom carriers, said a Free Press study released Monday. The study condemned past FCC leadership for its “contempt for the public interest.” It called for a new vision, to be executed through the national broadband plan. Specifically, the group wants Congress to pass a law giving legislative backing to the FCC’s Internet Policy Statement, which should be codified into permanent rules. Free Press urged the FCC to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service, to facilitate competition among carriers by allowing the commission to reinstate open access rules “where appropriate.” The universal service program should cover broadband, and the commission should do an “honest assessment” of whether broadband is being deployed to all Americans, it said. The study called for a review of competition and pricing policies in the special access and middle-mile markets. It said Congress and the commission should open more public airwaves to unlicensed use and promote spectrum sharing for low-power urban and high-power rural uses. Congress should instruct the FCC and NTIA to inventory spectrum that could be used, the study said. ----
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Jobs created under the broadband stimulus program must pay $92,000 a year to qualify as a newly created job, according to White House guidelines Monday. The Recovery Act requires Agencies to count how many jobs are created with stimulus money. The administration plans to tally up the total number of “job years” over four years, said a Council of Economic Advisers study. It defines a job year as one job for one year. “Since most workers earn much less than $92,000 a year, the figure of $92,000 per job-year may seem large,” the CEA said. The “source of the gap” between average wages and the cost per job-year is that the increase in gross domestic product resulting from stimulus spending does not all take the form of wages for newly- employed workers. Some workers move up to full-time employment, some add overtime, and the economy benefits form other types of non-compensation spending such as rents and profits. The main focus of agencies implementing stimulus programs will be reporting the jobs created and retained, the report said. Office of Management and Budget guidelines are soon to be released outlining how agencies do this reporting, CEA said. The council will publish its first report in August on the employment impact of stimulus funding, based on agency input, it said.