On May 22, 2009, the Federal Communications Commission’s Acting Chairman, Michael J. Copps released Bringing Broadband to Rural America: Report on a Rural Broadband Strategy. The 2008 Farm Bill required that the FCC Chair in coordination with the Secretary of Agriculture prepare a comprehensive rural broadband strategy that would include recommendations for improving interagency coordination of broadband policies and initiatives, for assessing broadband needs in rural areas, and for how specific federal agency programs and resources can overcome the obstacle that currently impede rural broadband deployment.
The report addresses ways in which interagency coordination can be improved and how federal programs can be streamlined, improved and coordinated, and discusses technological considerations and approaches to data collection and mapping, as well as how best to stimulate and sustain demand for broadband in rural areas. The report also examines the challenges to deployment including the need for the reform of Universal Service programs, network openness, spectrum access, middle mile access, and other issues.
This is an important building block for the FCC’s National Broadband Plan that is currently open for public comment and due for delivery to Congress in February 2010.
The report can be found at http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-291012A1.pdf
