Rural Broadband Workshop (updated w/agenda)
Rural Broadband Workshop
Federal Communications Commission
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2014/db0227/DA-1...
Updated agenda: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-14-365A1.pdf
The Rural Broadband Workshop will focus on the importance of broadband in rural America and include presentations designed to elicit information to help develop “ideas about how to structure experiments that will inform our policy decisions regarding the deployment of next generation networks in rural, high-cost areas.
The workshop will include an examination of the broadband needs of rural populations and the unique challenges of both broadband deployment and adoption in rural areas. In addition, the discussion will highlight the economic, educational, and healthcare benefits that can be realized through broadband deployment and adoption. The workshop will also examine different business models that have been used to deploy broadband in rural areas, including a discussion of the factors that drive investment decisions and technology choices of different types of providers in rural communities. Finally, the workshop will examine the role that states have played, and can continue to play, in meeting the rural broadband challenge.
9:15 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. Welcome and Opening Remarks – Chairman Wheeler
9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Panel 1: Broadband Needs, Challenges and Opportunities in Rural America
This panel will discuss the critical need for high-speed broadband in rural areas for individual consumers, businesses, and community anchor organizations. The panel will focus on the specific impact that access to broadband has on education, healthcare, and economic development.
Introductory Remarks:
- Commissioner Mignon Clyburn
- Steve Rosenberg, Chief Data Officer, Wireline Competition Bureau, FCC
Moderators:
- Shirley Bloomfield, CEO, NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association
- Dr. Peter Stenberg, Senior Economist, USDA-Economic Research Service
- Julie Veach, Chief, Wireline Competition Bureau, FCC
Panelists:
- Jeff Fastnacht, Superintendent, Ellendale School, Ellendale, ND
- Charles Fluharty, President and CEO, Rural Policy Research Institute
- Brian Kelley, CEO, Ag Technologies
- Thomas F. Klobucar, Ph.D., Deputy Director, Office of Rural Health, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
- Linda Lord, Maine State Librarian
- Don Means, Coordinator, Gigabit Libraries Network
- Peter Morris, Senior Advisor to the Executive Director, National Congress of American Indians
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Panel 2: Rural Broadband Buildout - Effective Strategies & Lessons Learned
This panel will examine issues that incentivize different types of providers to deploy broadband in rural communities, factors that determine the type of technology deployed, and the current and future capabilities of different technologies.
Introductory Remarks:
Commissioner Michael O’Rielly
Moderators
- Jonathan Chambers, Chief, Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis, FCC
- Carol Mattey, Deputy Chief, Wireline Competition Bureau, FCC
- Alex Minard, Deputy Chief, Telecommunications Access Policy
- Division, Wireline Competition Bureau, FCC
Panelists:
- Will Aycock, General Manager, Greenlight Community Broadband, City of Wilson, NC
- Michael Cook, Senior Vice President, North America Division, Hughes Network Systems
- Jimmy Copeland, Director of Special Projects, Troy Cablevision, Inc.
- Randy Klindt, General Manager, Co-Mo Comm, Inc. (a subsidiary of Co-Mo Electric Cooperative, Inc.)
- Cecil Lara, Director Network Planning, AT&T
- Denny Law, General Manager/CEO, Golden West Telecommunications
- Ben Moncrief, Director, Government Relations, C Spire
- Alex Phillips, CEO, Highspeedlink.net
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Lunch Break
1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Panel 3: State Strategies to Meet the Rural Broadband Challenge
This panel will examine the important role that states can play in ensuring the availability and adoption of broadband in rural communities.
Moderators:
- Joanne Hovis, President, CTC Technology and Energy
- Kim Scardino, Chief, Telecommunications Access Policy Division, Wireline Competition Bureau, FCC
Panelists:
- David Salway, Director, New York State Broadband Program Office
- Catherine Sandoval, Commissioner, California Public Utilities Commission
- Lori Sorenson, Chief Operating Officer, Bureau of Communications & Computer Services, Illinois Central Management Services
- Ray Timothy, Ph.D., CEO/Executive Director, Utah Education Network