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Bridging the Digital Divide |
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Dear Stakeholders: I would like to share with you a letter I submitted on behalf of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute, or MBI, to Blair Levin, Executive Director, FCC Omnibus Broadband Initiative. Blair and his team are responsible for the development of the National Broadband Plan, which shall seek to ensure that everyone in the United States has access to broadband and shall establish benchmarks for meeting that goal. To view the status of the Plan, or to share your ideas, you can follow the link www.broadband.gov to the site. In December, on my first official day on the job, we met with Blair and his team while in Washington, DC, to discuss our western Massachusetts broadband network proposal. At the end of the meeting, he asked that we follow-up with recommendations for ways in which the FCC could support existing state broadband initiatives, such as that of the MBI, aside from providing additional federal funding or passing new laws. Our team compiled a list of 14 recommendations to help speed deployment of broadband. Among the recommendations were ideas including streamlining right-of-way and existing infrastructure access policies, enhancing the permitting and licensing process, leveraging joint opportunities in construction, smart grid, and e-health projects, as well as developing a best practices list and highlighting new ideas for Universal Service Fund reform and use of spectrum. To read the full letter, follow the link here. We believe the recommendations provided to the FCC will greatly enhance the ability of organizations like the MBI to deploy much-needed broadband infrastructure. Best regards,
Judith Dumont
Massachusetts Broadband Institute is a division of MTC |
