Two Perspectives on the National Broadband Plan

Blair Levin and Craig Settles took their public debate over the National Broadband Plan live in a discussion hosted by the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative and GigaOM on Monday, February 7, 2011. Moderated by Amy Schatz of the Wall Street Journal and Stacey Higginbotham from GigaOM, the discussion built on a series of columns published in December on GigaOM.com.

During the debate, Settles and Levin discussed the problems that a speed-defined view of broadband adoption has raised, including the cost for achieving universalization goals and in gathering support to implement them. They both agreed that the speed-centric benchmarks in the plan are not the best fulcrum for debate, but they differed in how they would incorporate speed into a holistic assessment of achieving universal access. Settles reiterated his point that communities should first decide what they want their network to do for them before determining the deployed pricing and speeds. Levin countered, as he had written in his articles on GigaOM, that for Congress to fund the project the benchmarks must be known ahead of time, and that if communities want to organize their own broadband solutions, they can do that without the help of the federal government.

While there remain many areas that will continue to define national broadband policy moving forward, there may be common ground on Universal Service Fund reform. Levin agreed with Settles that communities should be able to apply for Universal Service Fund subsidies – a debate likely to flare up as the Federal Communications Commission moves to reform USF to also support broadband connectivity.
 

Related Links
The National Broadband Plan: Some Assembly Still Required:
http://gigaom.com/2010/12/13/the-national-broadband-plan-some-assembly-still-required/

In Defense of the National Broadband Plan:
http://gigaom.com/2010/12/16/in-defense-of-the-national-broadband-plan/

National Broadband Rebuttal: Are We in for All, Or Just Enough:
http://gigaom.com/2010/12/17/national-broadband-rebuttal-are-we-in-for-all-or-just-enough/

The Broadband Plan and the Power of Data Driven Thinking:
http://gigaom.com/2010/12/21/the-broadband-plan-and-the-power-of-data-driven-thinking/

Co-sponsored by the New America America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative and GigaOM.com.

Participants

Introductions
Sascha Meinrath
Director, Open Technology Initiative
New America Foundation

Speakers
Craig Settles
President, Successful.com
Co-Director, Communities United for Broadband

Blair Levin
Author, FCC National Broadband Plan
Communications and Society Fellow, Aspen Institute

Moderators
Amy Schatz
The Wall Street Journal

Stacey Higginbotham
GigaOM