Broadband Stimulus Program Moving Fast and Looking Forward

The Broadband Technology Opportunities Program is a "jump start" for President Obama's broadband vision for communities to use information technology to expand and enrich their infrastructure to help revive a slowing economy, said Mark Seifert, Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Seifert delivered the morning keynote on the second day of Pike and Fischer's Broadband Policy Summit. The broadband programs are the "newest chapter" in the President's plans for "an interconnected democracy" that is internationally competitive, Seifert said. "Technology has kept America at the center of global innovation," he said. The BTOP programs funded in the Recovery Act are intended to accelerate both infrastructure improvements and service adoption at the consumer level, he said. Seifert noted that $450 million in stimulus funds earmarked for programs to encourage adoption and foster access are floors — not ceilings. "Folks need to understand how broadband affects their lives before they go out and get it," he said. The $7.25 billion in stimulus funds is only the beginning of the President's broader vision, and won't solve all of America's broadband issues Seifert acknowledged. But the grant program is being designed to attract both public and private investment that help encourage the President's goal of "broadband for all of us." This will require projects that will let both the public and private sectors "show us the way forward to the future," he said. If private capital isn't invested, communities can use the program to "address their own needs in creative and innovative ways."