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A project of the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program
Former FCC broadband czar Blair Levin says he has a formula for deploying broadband to 97% of the country in ten years for $10 billion. The government has just finished allocating almost $7 billion in stimulus funds to promote deployment to unserved and underserved areas, but Levin says that infusion “will not be sufficient to ensure that all people in the United States have access to and can enjoy the benefits of universal digital citizenship.”
Because broadband connections are the railroads of the 21st century—essential infrastructure required to transmit products (these days, in the form of information) from seller to buyer—our creaky Internet makes it harder for U.S. entrepreneurs to compete in global markets.
The following slides were presented by Blair Levin at the Knight Commission Anniversary Symposium in Washington, D.C., on September 29, 2010. Levin, who served as the executive director of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan before becoming a fellow with the Aspen Institute, outlines his vision for broadband policy and highlights the details [...]
A former FCC official who played a critical role in the development of the commission’s national broadband plan released a report Wednesday that argues that the federal government should establish a $10 billion fund over 10 years to help ensure all Americans have access to affordable broadband service. In the paper, Blair Levin, the former executive director of the FCC’s broadband initiative, noted that “current government programs to assure communication networks are available to all Americans will neither ensure that such networks are available nor encourage adoption.
The Knight Commission released Informed Communities a year ago with an exhortation for both “dialogue” and “action.” Both are happening, and the Commission’s report has helped. There are at least two reasons why.
The first is that key people in local communities throughout the country are hungry for the Knight Commission’s message. Two weeks ago, I had [...]
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced on Monday the final 14 recipients of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act investments to increase broadband access and use. In total, the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) have invested nearly $7 billion, including nearly $4 billion in [...]
Sean McLaughlin is a man with a plan for bringing universal broadband to communities in northern California’s Humboldt County. If he has his way, Humboldt County will also have a plan — a new General Plan that includes policies to develop a local communications infrastructure and services that meet the information needs of its residents.
McLaughlin [...]
The staff and fellows at New America Foundation’s Media Policy Initiative have been busy this year formulating policy and regulatory reforms to foster the development of media that satisfy the needs of democracy in the 21st century. Their work has centered on advancing the recommendations of the Knight Commission as articulated in the Commission’s report, [...]
The Universal Service Fund is in need of reform but rather than fully overhaul the program, Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Lee Terry, R-Neb., have introduced a bill targeting the high cost fund, the method of fund collection and the inclusion of funds for the support of broadband.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) this week announced American Recovery and Reinvestment Act awards to 37 initiatives that aim to expand broadband access and bring digital literacy, education and job-related skills to residents across 24 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The grants will allow the winning partnerships to address a wide variety of broadband-related community information needs, including:
comprehensive community [...]
Scranton, Pa. — The FCC has granted Scranton a grassroots opportunity. Armed with a temporary radio construction permit and guided by the Prometheus Radio Project, local non-profit organization Community Radio Collective, Inc. plans to launch full-power FM station WFTE 90.3 and they have five months to do it. Community Radio Collective has begun a capital campaign to raise $15,000 to be on the air by midnight Feb. 10, 2011, when its construction permit expires. The money will pay for a 60-foot tower to be built 10 miles away in Mount Cobb, creating an FM signal strong enough to reach the city and its suburbs clearly—that is, an area of about 200,000 people.
Having a computer in the home is widely considered a starting point for improving kids’ educational opportunities and learning environment today. Renee Hobbs points out in this recent op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer that, without good instruction in how to use the digital tools available, a computer in the home can actually have the opposite effect.
Hobbs cites a new study conducted at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy which found that students in grades five through eight, particularly kids from disadvantaged backgrounds, tended to post lower scores on standardized tests once computers and high speed Internet access reached their homes.
The Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, with senior sponsorship from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, presented this year’s Forum on Communications and Society (FOCAS) on the theme, “News Cities: The Next Generation of Healthy Informed Communities.”
Today, particularly on the Web, openness is supposed to be the watchword when it comes to communication. But, oddly enough, rules that govern much of our information currency are being written by regulatory agencies and lawmakers in closed private meetings, accountable to no one.
Benton Headlines
Watch the Knight Commission Anniversary Symposium
It has been one year since the Knight Commission released its Report, Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age, in which it presented 15 recommendations for improving the information health of America’s people, the information health of its communities, and the information vitality of our democracy. How far have these recommendations come along? On September 29, 2010, the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program will seek answers to this question by returning to the Newseum for a Symposium entitled “Toward Healthy Informed Communities: The Knight Commission Report One Year Later”. The event will mark the Report’s first anniversary with a discussion among key leaders and the unveiling of a new report on the policy reforms needed to achieve universal broadband access in the United States, a key recommendation of the Knight Commission.