Universal Broadband

[Commentary] If some areas end up with no winning bidder, does that mean the Federal Communications Commission's Connect America Fund Phase II auction is a failure? The answer is “No!” The FCC will need to look at the results of the Phase II auction to evaluate how universal service auctions are different in practice from spectrum auctions, and adjust accordingly, as necessary.

Recently, President Donald Trump attended the American Farm Bureau Federation's Annual Convention in Nashville (TN) to announce the recommendations of the interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity. The Administration is taking immediate steps to reduce barriers to deployment of broadband in rural America. An executive order released on Jan 8 – Streamlining and Expediting Requests to Locate Broadband Facilities in Rural America – instructs agencies to remove obstacles to capital investment and broadband services and more efficiently employ government resources.

[Commentary] A task force created by President Donald Trump has developed many recommendations for addressing this issue, but it has found one overarching challenge that we must overcome to ensure future rural prosperity. We must deploy high-speed internet access to rural America. E-connectivity is a tool that enables increased productivity for farms, factories, forests, and small businesses, and is fundamental for economic development and an improved quality of life.

The Federal Communications Commission is poised to make good on one of my top resolutions from last year: prioritizing high-quality economic and data analysis at the agency. After nine months of study and extensive interviews with several dozen experts both inside and outside the agency, the working group issued a report that included some concrete recommendations. Based on the insights from its report, I’ve shared with my colleagues an Order to create a new Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA).

Public entities like the Federal Communications Commission and state legislatures are supposed to look after the common good. Instead, their policies are making things tougher for small towns and rural areas anxious to improve their connectivity.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the January Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, January 30, 2018:

President Donald Trump’s address about economic issues facing rural America at the American Farm Bureau Federation convention touched on Trump rural broadband initiatives. But although President Trump talked about the importance of broadband to the rural economy and signed two executive orders aimed at facilitating rural broadband deployment, I came away asking ‘where the beef’ was.

Rural prosperity can only truly be achieved by connecting rural America to high-speed internet. It is critical to act quickly as the need for rural e-connectivity is growing every day. We must also ensure rural America won’t be left behind as we move toward nextgeneration networks like 5G, and emerging technologies like the Internet of Things. Prioritizing e-connectivity for rural America is the key to generating prosperity, investment, and innovation.

Objectives & Recommended Actions

It shall therefore be the policy of the executive branch to use all viable tools to accelerate the deployment and adoption of affordable, reliable, modern high-speed broadband connectivity in rural America, including rural homes, farms, small businesses, manufacturing and production sites, tribal communities, transportation systems, and healthcare and education facilities.