Blair Levin Calls For Broadband Deployment Fund

Blair Levin released a report that argues that the federal government should establish a $10 billion fund over 10 years to help ensure all Americans have access to affordable broadband service.

In the paper, Levin noted that "current government programs to assure communication networks are available to all Americans will neither ensure that such networks are available nor encourage adoption." Levin wrote the paper for the Aspen Institute, where he now works as a communications and society fellow, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Levin also recommends that the funding needed to bring broadband to those who don't currently have it could be obtained by repurposing funding in the Universal Service Fund, which has been used to subsidize telecommunications service in high-cost or rural areas. In the National Broadband Plan which Levin helped write, the Federal Communications Commission called for expanding the fund to include support for broadband. Levin noted that once funds are identified they should be distributed through a "transparent, market-based approach; that funds be provided only to areas where, without such funding, there is no private sector case to provide broadband; and that funds are provided to one provider per area. The criteria should be company and technology agnostic, and the recipients should be accountable for achieving universal broadband access in the relevant geographic areas." He notes that ultimately it might be too expensive to extend broadband service to the last .2 percent of the population, but adds that such households could be served by satellite broadband service. To help promote adoption of broadband, Levin calls for expanding and revamping the Lifeline and Link Up programs.