House Democrats Push High-Speed For Anchor Institutions

House Democrats have made it clear to the Federal Communications Commission, and now the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, that they want the national broadband plan to include getting high-speed broadband service to libraries and other anchor institutions. In a letter to NTIA, which is handing out billions in government grant money for broadband deployment, adoption and education, House Communications Subcommittee members Doris Matsui (D-CA) and Ann Eshoo (D-CA) and former Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) urged the administration to put a priority on "anchor institutions, including libraries, schools and health facilities." They said that a number of those institutions did not apply for that money because they did not fit the categories established by BTOP, and those that did apply found the process "confusing, complicated and discouraging." The legislators suggested that the anchor institutions needed 100 megabits to 1 gigabit connections to provide distance learning and healthcare services.