A Call to Action for a National Broadband Strategy

In May of last year, a group calling itself the U.S. Broadband Coalition put out a statement calling for a National Broadband Strategy. The statement suggested government action in the form of “tax incentives, grants, low cost loans, loan guarantees, universal service subsidies, efficient use of spectrum and other approaches” to stimulate increase broadband investment. It also advocates additional government programs to give all Americans computers and training in using them.

Why is this significant now? Because these goals appear to coincide with the directives of the incoming Obama administration. If congress designs it's multi-billion dollar infrastructure building/rebuilding/back-to-work efforts with the needs of rural America, we may see a major shift to increased broadband in the near term. More broadband means more devices and applications that use it, and therefore more opportunity. A veritable win-win.

The coaltion is made up of some heavy hitters: Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Intel, AT&T, Clearwire, Google, CTIA, The Wireless Association, the Fiber-to-the-Home Council and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, to name a few.

Read more:

PC World: Coalition pushes for US broadband plan

New America Foundation: A National Broadband Strategy Call to Action

Infoworld:Coalition pushes for U.S. broadband plan