Rural Telecommunications Congress Members and Others Take Spotlight at Broadband Communities Summit

[Commentary] The Rural Telecommunications Congress will take center stage with a series of sessions on “The Bandwidth of the States,” “Financing Future Bandwidth,” “Digital Learning in the Classroom,” “Rural Innovation,” and -- as a kicker -- “Cool Things Rural Communities Are Doing With Broadband.”

At the upcoming marque event, I’ve been asked to lead the Rural Telecommunications Congress morning session on “The Bandwidth of the States” together with Galen Updike, immediate past president of the RTC. As members of the RTC Board, Galen and I have planned a series of morning events that will highlight progress in broadband since 2009. We are coming up on the fifth year anniversary of the State Broadband Initiative program. SBI, part of the US Department of Commerce’s State Broadband Initiative program, has played a substantial role in enhancing broadband’s contribution to economic development. Several of the questions that will be address in this presentation include:

• What is the state of broadband now versus 2009 in the regions?
• What notable infrastructure projects have occurred since 2009 in the regions?
• What notable projects to spur broadband adoption have taken place in the regions?
• What are the future opportunity to public-private broadband efforts in the states within the regions? Are there any impediments to such progress in the states?
• What role will SBI entities have following December 31, 2014? Have any of the SBI entities made public their plans to continue, or to discontinue, operations?
• What role will the public safety network FirstNet play within the regions?
• Are there any notable private-sector Gigabit Networks under development in the regions?