Moving the Needle on Broadband

"Moving the Needle on Broadband: Stimulus Strategies to Spur Adoption and Extend Access across America"

NCTA White Paper

Date: 3/17/2009

It is widely understood that broadband is a crucial driver of economic recovery and global competitiveness. The broadband funding programs established by Congress in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) can help foster these goals. In particular, these programs can help bring broadband to the small percentage of the nation's homes with no physical access to broadband and overcome other barriers to adoption such as affordability, the lack of a computer or other equipment needed to connect to the Internet, and low levels of basic "digital literacy."

In this White Paper, NCTA outlines some basic principles that can help ensure that broadband fulfills its full promise as an engine of job creation, a facilitator of educational and healthcare opportunities, and a means of shrinking the distances between isolated communities:

• Funds should be used to increase broadband adoption and use
• Awards should be competitively and technologically neutral so as not to create disincentives to private investment that necessarily will continue to take the lead in broadband deployment
• Value-producing projects that can be implemented quickly should receive the highest priority
• Implementation should be transparent and coordinated with other agencies providing similar aid .
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