Transcript

DARRELL WEST: Broadband and wireless technologies represent key elements of our nation’s infrastructure, and people are used to thinking about infrastructure in terms of highways, bridges, and dams.  And I want to make the point that it’s important to understand that digital infrastructure is as important as the physical variety.  You know, just as we need a strong interstate highway system and viable mass transit, we also need accessible and affordable broadband so that businesses and consumers can reap the benefits of digital technology because we all know that digital technology is key to international competitiveness as well as long-term economic development.  So we really need to focus a lot of effort on this area. 

And many of you, I’m sure, know that the Federal Communications Commission recently put out a report estimating that it will require $350 billion to require universal and high-speed broadband coverage in the United States.  But yet, when you look at the public investment that was authorized as part of this year’s economic stimulus package, in the broadband area it was only $7.2 billion.  So, you can do the arithmetic.  It certainly raises a lot of interesting questions in terms of the gap between our aspirations in terms of what we would like to do in this area versus the reality of current public funding.

And so what we want to do today is look at a variety of different questions in terms of the future of broadband, in terms of how do we pay for our infrastructure development?  How do we improve adoption levels so that we can get better economies of scale in this area?  How do we bring affordable broadband to more Americans?  How can we identify innovative applications that will engage citizens and businesses?

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