From Broadband Market to Broadband Ecology

[Commentary] The team that worked on the broadband provisions of the stimulus law really put careful thought into how to create a package that would go to underserved or unserved urban and rural communities, would re-enforce community institutions, and would provide a boost for both competition and open networks. It is difficult to overstate the extent to which this represents a paradigm shift from the last 8 years, or even to the broadband efforts of the Clinton Administration. The old paradigm saw only traditional carriers and residential or enterprise customers. The regulatory arguments centered on what mixture of bribery, cajolery and compulsion would get large for-profit companies to do what policymakers in Washington wanted — provide "affordable" broadband. The broadband stimulus bill offers a much more sophisticated approach. The question is not "regulate" or "deregulate," nor is the goal so narrow as simply building infrastructure. The stimulus bill embraces the idea of a "broadband ecology" in which we — as a matter of public policy — value broadband for its transformative effect rather than for its consumer value and place it within the communities we hope to positively transform.