Congressman John Salazar introduced comprehensive broadband legislation (H.R. 2174) in the House of Representatives. The legislation creates a policy and action framework to ensure the federal government employs an effective and comprehensive strategy to deploy broadband service and access in the rural areas of the United States.

The rural broadband bill would establish an Office of Rural Broadband Initiatives at the Department of Agriculture and create an Undersecretary for Rural Broadband to be charged with coordinating several rural broadband grant and loan programs aimed at encouraging broadband infrastructure investment in underserved rural areas. Among the programs that would fall under the new Office’s jurisdiction is the Rural Broadband Access and Loan Guarantee program, which has been criticized for being too cumbersome and having qualification criteria too stringent to benefit the small, innovative telecommunications companies willing to invest in rural areas. This bill would require the Undersecretary to streamline and improve the program to ensure that loans and grants are being made to telecommunications companies with sound business plans. Moreover, the Undersecretary would be charged with developing a comprehensive rural broadband strategy to facilitate broadband access in rural areas as quickly as possible.

Also, the bill would establish a Rural Broadband Innovation Fund that would invest in experimental and cutting-edge applications that can deliver broadband service to rural areas including satellite, fiber, WiFi, and broadband over power lines (BPL). Finally, the bill would establish a Rural Broadband Advisory Panel that would include members of both the public and private sector to discuss issues relating to broadband deployment and offer advice and guidance to the Undersecretary in developing a comprehensive rural broadband strategy.

Broadband deployment has traditionally lagged in rural areas due to geography, population and lack of a viable market for large telecommunications companies. The Government Accountability Office has indicated that while about 30 percent of households in urban and suburban areas have access to broadband, only 17 percent of rural households have access.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2007 at 10:17 am and is filed under Elected. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.