Group Asks Obama for $30B Tech Stimulus

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a technology lobbying group, called on President-elect Barack Obama to reserve $30 billion of his proposed $700 billion economic stimulus package for broadband, a smart electric grid, and a health network. ITIF says rebuilding the nation's digital infrastructure will have a bigger impact on the economy than rebuilding roads and bridges--the centerpiece of the stimulus plan. Money spent on improving the digital infrastructure will spur investment, productivity, and innovation as opposed to the planned physical stimulus expenditure which will spur consumption for the most part, ITIF said. But the report is sure to chafe free market advocates, many of whom believe spending taxpayer dollars upgrading digital communications in the United States is a waste of public money. The big broadband problem in the country is coverage rather than cost to consumers. In urban areas there are multiple wireline and wireless broadband services from which to choose, but the commercial incentive to extend broadband to less-populated rural areas is not as compelling. "There are ways to improve broadband coverage in the U.S. without spending $30 billion," said Tim Farrar, president of Telecom Media and Finance Associates. "It can be done through regulation and perhaps extending Universal Service Fund responsibility to wireless broadband operators."