Broadband Stimulus Notes
The FCC should pay attention to the needs of rural America as the commission works on its national broadband strategy due in Congress by Feb. 17, said a June 26 letter to the agency from the Congressional Rural Caucus. The commitment to increasing broadband deployment must be part of an “ongoing effort to connect our communities,” the letter said. The FCC should offer suggestions on improving interagency information sharing in its report to Congress, it said. The broadband plan also needs to “recognize the need for reform of the Universal Service Fund” to support broadband. “Special efforts should be made to provide predictable, targeted support to achieve the final goal of universal service.”
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The FCC’s national broadband plan must allow some network management in case of a national emergency, said ChicagoFirst, a nonprofit association of Chicago financial institutions including Allstate and Bank of America. In a filing at the FCC, the association said any plan “must include options for addressing the network congestion that would result in the event of a serious pandemic, bioterrorism attack, or other possible disasters.” To recover quickly from an emergency, financial firms may have to do extensive telecommuting, requiring significant bandwidth in local neighborhoods, ChicagoFirst said. Federal policy “must ensure that the data flows critical to the nation’s economy continue,” it said. “Thus, traffic should be prioritized on its criticality to national and economic security.”
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More than 500 people showed up for NTIA’s and RUS’s first broadband stimulus application workshop Tuesday at National Harbor, Md., said Mark Tolbert, a spokesman for NTIA. The event was free and featured opening remarks from Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md. A total of ten workshops are planned around the country to help interested entities write applications for the first round of funding of the $7.2 billion broadband stimulus money.