you blog: digital equity - national broadband plan

indispensable, platform for innovation/solutions, create opportunity

first intenders

ambitious but achievable

100 squared initiative

1 place, 1 gig or higher

adoption rate - 65% to 100%

if digitally literate but no access?..

lead world in speed service

release of plan is a beginning not an end

blueprint to be reviewed and revised

critically an action plan

real risks if we don't act

pivot from planning to action - we have a responsibility

open/participatory, fact based (is that innovative?), analytically rigorous

the broader the participation the better the plan will be.

get engaged.

infrastructure
research and development
Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, with 40 institutional partners, vendors and community organizations, is planning a University Circle Innovation Zone in the economically impoverished area around the university to provide households, schools, libraries and museums with gigabit fiber optic connections.³ Case Western expects this network to create jobs in the community and spawn software and service development for Smart Grid, health, science and other applications, as well as foster technology, engineering and mathematics education services.⁴
Google has announced a plan to provide 50,000 to 500,000 consumers in a small number of test communities with gigabit connections.⁵ And Cisco Systems is deploying a telemedicine pilot solution to 15 medical sites in California to spur e-health application development.⁶

All of these efforts aim to accelerate the pace of innovation by placing next-generation technology in the hands of individuals and entrepreneurs, and allowing them to discover the best uses for it. Very fast networks may lead to unanticipated discoveries that will change how people connect, work, learn, play and contribute online.

Although measuring the effects of R&D is difficult, studies find that firms earn 20% to 30% returns on their investments.⁷ R&D returns to society are even higher as innovators beyond original research teams are able to access research and take work in new directions.⁸ The gap between R&D returns for private companies and those for society presents a challenge for funding and conducting R&D.⁹

Government can help fill the R&D investment gap by funding research that would yield net benefits to society but that would not earn sufficient returns to be privately profitable.¹⁰ This approach should include funding for direct research, for R&D at universities and other institutions, and for subsidizing private R&D through mechanisms such as the R&D tax credit.¹¹ Alongside direct funding, the government can take an active role in creating new next-generation applications and uses by linking DoD locations with ultra-high-speed broadband connectivity.

The federal government needs to create a clear agenda and priorities for broadband-related R&D funding, focused on important research that would not be conducted absent government intervention. The government can also promote R&D through regulatory policies allowing increased use of government resources. Examples include establishing research centers or allowing access to spectrum in order to evaluate new technologies in ways that theoretical studies and simulations do not support.

Currently, there are restrictions on market trials conducted under experimental authorizations.³⁰ ³¹ should evaluate whether regulatory restrictions should be relaxed to permit research organizations to conduct broader market studies. Similarly, such organizations could be permitted to operate experimental stations without individual coordination of frequencies, conditioned on not causing harmful interference to authorized stations. Such a program could allow the FCC to work cooperatively with research organizations to identify topics and frequency bands for further study and to learn about new wireless technologies. The FCC, building on relevant ideas from the Wireless Innovation Notice of Inquiry,

To facilitate the use of spectrum by researchers, the FCC should work with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to identify underutilized spectrum that may be suitable for conducting research activities. It should also conduct workshops with NTIA to advance research activities involving spectrum use.

¹ Nat’l Research Council, Innovation in Information Technology 5–7 (2003).

² See Nat’l Research Council, Innovation in Information Technology 2–3 (2003).

³ Case Western Reserve University, A Smarter Region One Neighborhood at a Time: University Circle Innovation Zone 2 (University Circle Innovation Zone), http://www.case.edu/its/publication/documents/BetaBlockPublic030210.pdf (last visited Mar. 4, 2010).

⁴ University Circle Innovation Zone at 6.

⁵ Minnie Ingersoll & James Kelly, Think Big with a Gig: Our Experimental Fiber Network, The Official Google Blog, Feb. 10, 2010 (Ingersoll & Kelly, Think Big with a Gig), http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/think-big-with-gig-our-experimental.html.

⁶ Cisco, Cisco and Molina Healthcare Announce Transformative Telemedicine Pilot Program for Underserved and Underinsured Communities(press release), Jan. 15, 2010, http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2010/prod_011510b.html.

implementation and benchmarks
Additionally, the FCC should have a separate process for allowing researchers access to non-public data, subject to certain restrictions.¹⁷ The FCC should also continue to utilize Broadband.gov, which has been a successful Web portal for communicating with the public in an open and interactive fashion about the development of the National Broadband Plan

goals for 2020 (See Chapter 2)
At least 100 million U.S. homes should have affordable access to world-class actual download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second (Mbps), and actual upload speeds of at least 50 megabits per second.

crazy unacceptable