National Broadband Plan: Serving the Last, the Least and the Lost

The National Broadband Plan needs to focus on "the least, the last and the lost," according to panelists participating in the Federal Communications Commission's field hearing on mobile applications and radio-frequencies in San Diego. The "least" would include those in the lower income bracket, while the "last" are those at the outer reach of infrastructure or beyond its reach. Education and literacy is probably the main key to reaching the "lost," who are mainly the people who have not understood the value of broadband in their lives. And rather that "killer apps," much of the focus was on "saver apps," which could provide life-saving or life-enhancing services like housing or medical monitoring. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski asked panelists to think about the value of a clearinghouse where best practices could be shared. He suggested that might be a way to spur the spin-off of public-sector apps from private sector initiatives and to prevent reinventing the wheel rather than tapping into what is already being done. There is not a lot of shared info out there, he said.