Connect Kentucky Article Raises Bell Lobby Specter

CONNECT KENTUCKY ARTICLE RAISES BELL LOBBY SPECTER
[SOURCE: DrewClark.com]
[Commentary] Art Brodsky’s 4,789-word article about Connect Kentucky and its offspring Connected Nation has been the talk of telecom circles over the past week. Connected Nation is a non-profit entity that has become one of biggest players in the currently topical field of broadband data. Using their work in Kentucky as a model for mapping out broadband availability nation-wide, the group has become a driving force behind legislation that would provide grants for other states to duplicate these efforts. Examples of legislation following the Connect Kentucky model are the Senate version of the current farm bill, HR 4212, which includes Sen. Richard Durbin’s (D-IL) Connect the Nation Act (S. 1190). Durbin’s bill would authorize $40 million a year, for five years, to state efforts to map out broadband inventory on the census block level. The Broadband Data Improvement Act (S. 1492), by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), takes a similar approach. The goal is, in the identical language of both bills, to “identify and track the availability and adoption of broadband services within each State.” The House-passed “Broadband Census of America Act” by Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), takes a slightly different approach. H.R. 3919 authorizes $20 million a year, for three years, for similar state initiatives. The crucial difference is that Markey’s bill also calls for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to create publicly-available map of broadband deployment. The map would feature not only broadband availability, but “each commercial provider or public provider of broadband service capability.” The underlying premise behind all of these bills, and behind the image that Connected Nation presents, is that mapping out the availability of high-speed Internet access throughout the country would help policy-makers, business actors and consumers to better tap into the benefits of broadband. Brodsky’s piece brings several of issues pertaining to broadband mapping and broadband data to the forefront right now. For all the controversy over Connect Kentucky, it is better that the Bell companies say that they want to take a census of our nation’s broadband. That, at least, is the first step in actually getting there.
http://www.drewclark.com/connect-kentucky-article-raises-bell-lobby-spec...