America Needs a Fiber-Based National Broadband Policy Now

AMERICAN NEEDS A FIBER-BASED NATIONAL BROADBAND POLICY NOW
[SOURCE: The FTTH Prism, AUTHOR: Jim Baller & Casey Lide]
[Commentary] At the two URLs below, find Baller & Lide's rationale for and steps toward a national broadband strategy. The eight steps are:

1) Create a Critical Mass of Support for a National Broadband Strategy: As a first step, advocates must use all means at their disposal to educate opinion leaders in government, business, academia, labor, consumer groups, the media, and the public, about America’s pressing need for a National Broadband Strategy.

2) First Step Legislation: Congress and the President should prepare and enact legislation that articulates the nature of the challenge and the stakes involved for America, outlines the key steps to be taken, and provides a sufficient budget to do the job right.

3) The President and the leadership of Congress should appoint a non-partisan, broadly representative blue-ribbon task force.

4) Establish Preliminary Goals: As one of its first undertakings, the task force should develop ambitious, but realistic, preliminary goals to help focus its information-gathering, information-exchange, and negotiations.

5) Get Better Data: The task force should develop the statistical and factual bases necessary for each major sector of the American economy to identify and make informed decisions about the opportunities and challenges it faces.

6) Exchange and Refine Information: The task force should facilitate exchanges of information and imaginative interactions among the various sectors.

7) Task Force Recommendations: The task force should narrow the potential strategies to a manageable number, prepare a working draft of a report to the President and Congress, obtain feedback from their constituent groups, and develop a final document.

8) Enact Legislation to Implement the National broadband Strategy: After the task force has presented its final report and recommendations to the President and Congress, it will be their task to enact the legislation necessary to implement the task force’s recommendations.
http://www.baller.com/pdfs/baller-lide_fiberprism.pdf

* Eight Bold Steps to a National Broadband Strategy
http://www.baller.com/pdfs/baller-lide_8Steps_NatBBStrategy.pdf