The Proper Role for Broadband Mapping When Implementing Fiscal Stimulus

Through public hearings on broadband stimulus, it is starkly apparent that demand for spending broadband stimulus funds far outstrips the $7.2 billion in available funds. These hearings, by the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and Agriculture Department's Rural Utilities Service (RUS), have assembled officials and interested parties to examine and address the gap. The same is true of the realm of broadband data, and in the $350 million allocated to that task by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Consider the competing needs to: Produce meaningful data that support existing law; Align with key metrics that inform the goals and metrics associated with the emerging National Broadband Strategy; and Allocate resources to projects that are expedited, transparent, and accountable.

Part 1 of this article looks at two laws that set the scope of broadband mapping initiatives addressed in section 8 of the joint NTIA and RUS call for comment. The conclusion? The broadband mapping provisions associated with the ARRA are: 1) Narrowly scoped; 2) Ideally suited to visually depict unserved areas; 3) Related directly and exclusively to expanding the scope of S.1492, Section 103(c) as amended; and 4) Potentially misleading and harmful if allowed to drive and dominate the broader need for good-quality broadband data.

Part 2 of this article responds to the questions about the broadband mapping initiative posed in the joint NTIA-RUS call for comment.