[governance] FW: [AFCN Members] House Draft of Economic Stimulus Bill: BroadbandProvisions

Mon Jan 19 08:05:02 EST 2009

Some of you may be interested in the attached... It indicates that the
intention of the Democrats in Congress as well as Pres. Obama is to place
ICTs more or less at the centre of their New Deal attempts to revive the US
economy beyond making the world safe for banker's five course lunches and
zillion dollar bonuses, that is by putting spending power into the hands of
those who will spend it and putting a lot of very socially
desirable/productive things in place in the process.

The ideologically to the right of George W. current Canadian government, is
in the process of pinching its nose tight shut and doing more or less the
same thing and my guess is that the folks in Europe are moving more or less
along the same path.

What fair-minded argument and rational analysis couldn't achieve an economic
firestorm is making not only possible but inevitable at an accelerating
rate.

What all this means is that in the developed countries at least "access" as
an (infrastructue) issue is very very much on the table and there is in the
broader program from Congress even an apparent recognition that access is
not simply a good in itself but as linked to education, health care,
training etc. is a central aspect of creating an inclusive (and
aspirationally equitable) modern society.

How this impacts on the Internet Governance discussion and the IGF remains,
to be seen, but it does mean I think, an increased emphasis in IG and other
ICT related issues on how to effectively use ICTs for economic and social
development (and relatedly how IG either enhances or retards that process...
and of course how to develop the kinds of skills required at all levels to
integrate and effectively use ICTs in the full range of these activities
(eSkills).

Best, 

MBG

Michael Gurstein, Ph.D.
Director
The Information Society Institute (TISI)
Cape Town, South Africa
tel. admin +27(0)217-129-782
SA Cell +27-769-825-175
email: gurstein at gmail.com

Centre for Community Informatics Research, Training and Development
Ste. 2101-989 Nelson St.
Vancouver BC CANADA v6z 2s1
http://www.communityinformatics.net <http://www.communityinformatics.net/> 
tel./fax +1-604-602-0624 

-----Original Message-----
From: members-bounces at afcn.org [mailto:members-bounces at afcn.org] On Behalf
Of Rich Greenfield
Sent: January-16-09 3:00 AM
To: members at afcn.org
Subject: [AFCN Members] House Draft of Economic Stimulus Bill:
BroadbandProvisions

I've excerpted the explicit broadband provisions, which are in four
different parts of the 240 page draft House bill, and added the related
broadband paragraphs from the draft House report, and attached these as a
Word document of 10 pages. This may be easier to read, analyze or
distribute. 

The full bill and report are available on the House Appropriations page at
<mhtml:{AEDED820-BE5B-4C64-AA9F-5EEFC5071765}mid://00000212/!x-usc:http://ap
propriations.house.gov/> http://appropriations.house.gov/ and I've attached
a summaryof the bill since there are so many sections that will impact local
economies. You may want to search the bill or the summary with your favorite
keywords to find out other provisions about shcools, libraries, etc.

At first glance, the big government broadband players in this bill will be
RUS ($2,825,000,000 for grants and loans), NTIA (Sec. 3102, $2,825,000,000,
of which $1 billion is for wireless voice and aedvanced broadband and $1,825
for broadband deployment grants and, finally, Commerce (PL110-385,
$350,000,000 for broadband data and mapping). Total of  $6 billion.

There don't seem to be any new definitions of broadband for the RUS money,
but the NTIA money is suject to the definitions in Sect. 3102 where:

(1) the term ''advanced broadband service'' means a service delivering data
to the end user transmitted at a speed of at least 45 megabits per second
downstream and at least 15 megabits per second upstream; 

(2) the term ''advanced wireless broadband service'' means a wireless
service delivering to the end user data transmitted at a speed of at least 3
megabits per second downstream and at least 1 megabit per second upstream
over an end-to-end internet protocol wireless network;  

(3) the term ''basic broadband service'' means a service delivering data to
the end user transmitted at a speed of at least 5 megabits per second
downstream and at least 1 megabit per second upstream; 

(4) the term ''eligible entity'' means-

(A) a provider of wireless voice service, advanced wireless broadband
service, basic broadband service, or advanced broadband service;

(B) a State or unit of local government, or agency or instrumentality
thereof, that is or intends to be a provider of any such service; and

 (C) any other entity, including construction companies, tower-building
companies, or other service providers, that the NTIA authorizes by rule to
participate in the programs under this section, if such other entity is
required to provide access to the supported infrastructure on a neutral,
reasonable basis to maximize use;

Rich

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