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Submitted: December 17, 2008 - 9:26am
Last updated: January 8, 2009 - 1:40pm
Last updated: January 8, 2009 - 1:40pm
Source:
Washington Post
Author:
Cecilia Kang
President-elect Barack Obama's call to bring high-speed Internet to all Americans has set off a scramble among service providers for a piece of the action. Building out networks to rural and underserved urban areas -- with possible help from the economic stimulus plan being crafted by Congress -- could create hundreds of thousands of jobs and enrich telecom, wireless and cable companies whose businesses have suffered as households tighten spending. Within the well-funded world of telecom lobbying, even fierce opponents are in rare agreement that Obama's plans to expand networks would boost the economy with jobs digging trenches for fiber lines and designing complex networks. But the interest groups differ on how that ambition should be executed, and that has sparked a race that one lobbyist calls a "telecom takefest."
Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, said there are no specific plans for broadband yet in an economic stimulus package that lawmakers want to vote on in January and have ready for Obama soon after he is sworn in as president. But Chairman Markey said any incentive should be distributed with conditions that prevent network operators from stalling or blocking traffic, a contentious issue known as net neutrality that the network firms argue would drive up costs as Web traffic increases.
For the Telecommunications Industry Association, tax breaks are a priority.
Corning, a supplier of ultra-fast fiber-optic technology, wants companies to offer higher speed standards to qualify for financial help.
Free Press, a public interest group, has urged lawmakers and Obama's tech advisers to give oversight of the plan to an agency familiar with technology policy such as the Federal Communications Commission or the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is the White House's telecom office. The group insists the service should be affordable and seeks subsidies for low-income families with school-age children so they can buy laptop computers and deduct the cost of home Internet access.
The Communications Workers of America wants Congress to approve tax breaks that would allow network operators to expense, through tax deductions, a larger portion of their broadband deployment costs right away, which the union says would encourage operators to build networks more quickly.
Wireless trade group CTIA met with Obama's tech advisers this month to suggest that wireless technology should be the focus for broadband expansion because people are increasingly using Internet data services over their cellphones and wireless laptops.
Telecom carriers are among a chorus of companies that have called for repurposing a fund that uses monthly charges from telephone bills to pay for expanding basic phone service in rural and underserved urban areas. The fund, they say, should be channeled to build broadband networks instead of land lines.
But Public Knowledge, a public interest group, cautioned that arguing over the $7 billion fund could hold up progress.
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Free Press released Down Payment on Our Digital Future: Stimulus Policies for the 21st-Century Economy a comprehensive set of proposals that would deploy a forward-looking national broadband infrastructure.
REINVENTING AMERICA WITH A NEW INFRASTRUCTURE APPROACH
Given the current economic circumstances, the pressures on our transportation infrastructure and our concerns about the environment, investment in new ways to use information and communications technologies will yield multiple benefits. Now, more than ever, we must consider the potential to employ telecommunications infrastructure with greater usefulness. A logical starting point is to develop a more effective, secure and holistic approach to workforce deployment.
Distributed workplace, a network of strategically based work centers, is a higher order model than today’s teleworking approaches. These work centers contain multiple suites with each suite dedicated to 15-50 employees from one company or agency. With a dozen or more tenant organizations, each work center supports 500 to 1000 employees. Each work center is connected to other work centers and employers’ locations using dedicated, secure broadband technologies. By creating economies of scale, a central support technical staff provides infrastructure, training and security to the various work center clients. Community based work centers create the building blocks for other value added services such as workforce development, distance learning, telemedicine, and day care programs.
Every center will be unique based upon each community's individual requirements.
Each dollar invested in advanced telecommunications solutions expands access between employers and their knowledge based employees. Additionally, this results in improving access on our transportation infrastructure through congestion mitigation. Investments in creating new approaches to connect communities will improve mobility giving employees access to work from within their local communities immediately reducing reliance on fossil fuels and converting gasoline dollars into local economy dollars. These local economy dollars have a multiplier effect that will spawn a more rapid economic recovery.
Employers will find that a network of work centers will provide security for data systems and employees, while improving emergency preparedness and continuity of operations planning. As the recovery from recession takes hold, employers that have developed a network of distributed offices will find it easier to retain its existing employees and to attract new ones.
In order to leverage telecommunications infrastructure effectively, aggregate demand and opportunities must be assessed to achieve economies of scale. The initial focus on workforce deployment requires an understanding of the aggregate geographic hiring patterns of the area's major employers. Mapping the knowledge based workplace and assessing corresponding geographic density patterns is the first step.
The tenor of the new administration is to fund effective infrastructure programs. This new leadership also has enunciated an understanding of telecommunication’s growing significance. Effective telecommunications solutions have the shortest timeframe to implement and the greatest potential for rapid economic gain. Connecting communities in support of government and commercial employers lends itself to funding under public-private partnerships.
Communities that develop a collective approach to problem solving using telecommunications resources will differentiate themselves from other communities’ infrastructure proposals, accelerate their economic recovery and create a more sustainable balance of transportation (mobility), land use (proximity) and telecommunications (connectivity) methods of access.
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