The FCC Should Only Fund Scalable, Future-Proof Broadband Networks

This week the Federal Communications Commission is expected to create the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. As proposed, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund will make available $20.4 billion to subsidize deployment of high-speed internet networks to rural areas that don’t have adequate service now. Because the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund represents the vast majority of rural broadband funds available to the FCC over the next ten years, it’s important to make sure the Commission does it right – with an eye on the types of networks unserved communities will need at the end of the decade, not just right now. And, as we recommend in Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s, the starting point for federal funding of future-proof networks should be a requirement of 100/100 Mbps service without usage limits and latency low enough to run interactive video applications (like videoconferencing) for the foreseeable future. Policymakers are grappling with the challenge of ensuring that broadband deployment is as successful in the next decade as the provisions of electricity and telephone service were in the 20th century. But, as it happens, the goals of fiscal responsibility and better broadband are best achieved by funding future-proof networks now.

[Jonathan Sallet is a Benton Senior Fellow]