TechPulse 360

How the broadband boost promised by the Obama Administration takes shape is still a vaguely defined work in progress.

FCC Chair Michael Copps is seeking public imput on where to spend broadband billions

The government plans to spend $7.2 billion to enhance broadband networks across the country and primarily in rural areas. On Tuesday, it kicked off its efforts by saying the money, contained in the economic stimulus bill, will be spent by October 2010.

But it acknowledged it has not decided how to define “underserved” and un-served” communities, those slated to receive the funds.

With the U.S. facing a two-pronged broadband deficit that dramatically worsened under the Bush Administration, the question is a complicated one. First of all, many rural communities in the U.S. don’t have broadband access.

Secondly, communities that do – rural or not – pay higher prices for slower speeds than many leading developed countries around the world, including Japan, Korea and France.

I have hoped that the government’s fund would address both issues. But it was unclear from Tuesday’s briefing whether this would be the case.

Here are excerpts from the stimulus bill that will guide policy makers: “1) provide broadband service to unserved areas of the United States: (2) improved broadband service to underserved U.S. areas;…(5) stimulate the demand for broadband, economic growth, and job creation.

“Provides for related grants to be used, among other things, to: (1) acquire equipment, networking capability, hardware and software, and infrastructure for broadband services; and (2) construct and deploy broadband infrastructure.”

I hope the Federal Communications Commission view its role in the broadest terms possible, addressing the speed deficit as well as rural access.