[Commentary] There's been a lot of buzz around the benefits and relative viability of wiring all community anchor institutions (schools, libraries, hospitals, etc.) with fiber as the way to get the best bang for the broadband stimulus buck. But with any broadband policy it's dangerous to assume that an idea is universally good as the devil's always in the details. If we were to just go and build fiber networks to meet the needs of community anchor institutions then it's actually more likely that these networks won't be useful for future deployment. The reasons for this are manifold. Their might not be enough capacity designed into the network, either in dark fiber or spare conduit. Their won't necessarily be an easy to way to physically access this capacity even if it's there. The network likely won't be engineered in the optimal way in terms of its layout to facilitate universal broadband as community anchors aren't evenly distributed, especially in rural areas. And even if the network is designed the right way, there needs to be a fair system with clear rules for how deployers can get equal access to these networks.
