Alliance outlines national broadband strategies

When president elect Barack Obama officially takes office in January, one of his biggest priorities in the realm of technology will likely be a plan to ensure broadband access for every United States citizen. The Internet Innovation Alliance, a nonprofit advocate for universal broadband in the United States, held a symposium at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. today to generate new ideas for both the Obama administration and for Congress on how to bring high-speed Internet connectivity to underserved regions throughout the country.

Before discussing specific strategies for guaranteeing nationwide broadband access, the IIA invited panelists from several industries to talk about why universal broadband connectivity is vital to America's current and future economic interests.

Susan Patrick, the president of the North American Council for Online Learning, said developing countries such as India and China have recently been leading the way for creating cutting-edge online education programs and that the rise of wireless broadband technologies such as WiMAX would enable them to give hundreds of millions of children a high-quality education over the Internet. While U.S. schools have also been investing in online learning programs, Patrick noted that the quality of these programs varies widely from state to state and that only 18 states currently allow students to enroll full-time in online education programs.

Elaine Kamarck, a lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, said in addition to helping expand education, broadband connectivity is also broadening access to healthcare in rural areas of the developing world where people live far away from doctors and nurses. 

Dr. Jay Sanders, the president and CEO of the Global Telemedicine Group at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, expressed similar sentiments and explained how telecommunications advances over the past 40 years have helped patients gain access to care and health information without actually going to a doctor's office. Sanders said if the United States wants to continue providing quality care, it will need to give all hospitals and doctors' offices access to a strong broadband connection.

When it came to specific ideas on how to provide universal broadband access, United States Internet Industry Association President David McLure told the panel that the federal government should concentrate mainly on areas where carriers have not yet built out broadband infrastructure. After all, said McLure, it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars for the government to build out infrastructure in areas that are already being served by cable, DSL, WiMAX or other broadband technologies. Additionally, he said that any broadband strategy had to focus not only on broadband access, but on what he called "digital inclusion" that could be solved through better educating the public on computer and Internet use.

"The problem we're seeing is not the deployment of broadband, it's the adoption of broadband," he said. "25% of the population doesn't have broadband, and when asked, nearly half will tell you that they don't need it… we have got to focus on bringing people into the fold. We have to give people the skills and education that we need. Children who don't graduate from high school and who have no skills will be stuck in low-paying jobs their whole lives."