Broadband Adoption Requires Ongoing Policy Attention, Rosenworcel, Strickling Say
DENVER -- Broadband adoption remains the ongoing big challenge, FCC and NTIA officials told NARUC on Monday, as does the need for faster speeds. NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling talked about ways to continue the agency’s broadband stimulus mission as the current grants program ends, while FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel described how her agency is taking on those challenges. “What we need to do is take that E-rate program and take it to the next level,” Rosenworcel said, citing the NPRM the FCC unanimously approved Friday (CD July 22 p1). “We have to develop capacity goals."
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There will be an extended comment period, said FCC Wireline Associate Bureau Chief Trent Harkrader during a Sunday NARUC discussion. The FCC wants to ensure schools have enough time to comment, so the commenting period will run into “the middle of the fall,” he said. The rulemaking has “many, many, many questions in it,” Rosenworcel said. She said she hopes to reach out beyond “traditional stakeholders” and hear from what people in the states are doing with broadband. “I would encourage all of you to participate in our rulemaking,” she told NARUC members. “It has been my experience in Washington that decisions without you are decisions against you."
Broadband adoption “emerged as an increasingly important issue,” Strickling said of recent years, saying 98 percent of families now have access to “minimal levels” of broadband access. But there’s a “huge gap” between where broadband is available versus who subscribes, he said. “There is no one magic bullet to solve the problem.” The bandwidth needs of schools are far greater than those of other elements of the community, Strickling said. He referred to “more particularized speed demands of schools and libraries” and explained why anchor institutions have been a focus of stimulus spending.
NTIA has overseen the three-year stimulus grants of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), which addressed adoption as well as access. Those grants are set to end this year, and no new grants are likely, said Strickling. “No one’s expecting another big outlay of grant money.” Strickling cited tight budgets. NTIA has learned a lot about adoption challenges but sees it as a “multifaceted problem” calling for similarly complex and different solutions, he said. For a variety of reasons, households often fail to see the value in subscribing to broadband, said Strickling. “That’s probably our biggest hurdle to overcome.” BTOP projects showed NTIA the importance of having “really tailored” approaches and that the most successful programs involve job training, he said.
As these BTOP grants end, NTIA wants the recipient projects to continue, Strickling added. He praised the state broadband offices NTIA helped fund and their on-the-ground knowledge. The FCC should think about how to support these offices and their “important service,” Strickling added. He also described how NTIA helped collect the lessons of certain projects into a toolkit earlier this year. “They're actually not all that expensive to run,” he said. “But what was missing was the knowledge base.” Strickling said he wants to “keep the momentum going.”
Rosenworcel reiterated her “dream likely” and “dream big” scenario regarding what the future of E-rate will look like. By 2015, she hopes the FCC helps ensure schools have access to 100 Mbps per 1,000 students, and by the end of the decade, ensure a gigabit per 1,000 students, she said. “The idea is about education but also infrastructure.” Bringing such speeds to schools can help with broadband adoption at home, she said, calling students a potential “change agent” with “tremendous spillover effect” to the communities and the economy. “I think we need to have an honest discussion if we have E-rate at the appropriate size now,” Rosenworcel added, referring to how long ago the fund was established.
The FCC may tackle adoption in other ways, Rosenworcel said. She pointed to the reform happening with the Lifeline program and considered other potential changes: “I'd like to see how we can use that same program to think about broadband and that broadband gap so students have that ability to do their homework, to apply for a scholarship.” Rosenworcel also described the goals of the FCC’s recent telemedicine efforts and criticized how state-specific malpractice and insurance policies may be affecting any potential innovation. “State licensing regimes, for instance, can impede its growth,” she said. There are many rules premised on the idea of face-to-face contact, she said. “We're going to have to look for ways to streamline some of these old policies."
NARUC Telecom Committee Chairman John Burke questioned whether the E-rate decision should be referred to the FCC Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, saying he was pleased with the belief in E-rate by Strickling and Rosenworcel. Rosenworcel said there should be more discussions about ways to use the states through the Joint Board, which “we have not used extensively in the last several years.” But she hopes “to do more with it.” Rosenworcel is not sure whether the E-rate decision would be an appropriate referral, she said.