Update

Washington Passes a Broadband Deployment and Adoption Initiative

Washington State took a bold step forward to provide greater access to the Internet with the passage of a bill that uses an intra-government partnership approach to ensure that deployment of the Internet will provide smart utilization in addition to increased access.

Washington Senate Bill 6438, introduced by Senator Kohl-Welles, and strongly supported by Senator Kauffman, Representative Hudgins and Representative McCoy, sets forth a comprehensive and integrated statewide, high-speed Internet deployment and adoption strategy.  The bill unites several different government agencies, requiring the Department of Information Services to work in partnership with  departments such as trade, economic development, utilities, transportation, and education, to achieve the following goals: (1) ensure all residents and businesses have access to affordable and reliable high-speed Internet services; (2) achieve improved technology literacy, increased computer ownership, and high-speed Internet use among state residents and businesses; (3) establish and empower local technology planning teams and partnerships to plan for improved technology use across multiple community sectors; and (4) establish and sustain an environment ripe for statewide telecommunications and technology investment, including solicitation and receipt of grants, loans, and other financial mechanisms.  

 Key elements of the bill include:

• Collecting mapping data down to the census block level. This will ensure that state leaders can see if there are digital divides within zip codes.

• The creation of partnerships between different government departments -- such as trade, economic development, utilities, transportation, and education -- to ensure that broadband deployment will not only provide increased access to, but also smart utilization of the Internet.

• Strong digital literacy legislation, thanks in large part to strong efforts by the Communities Connect Network. This section creates a web-based map of all community technology programs, creates a community technology grant program, and allocates $500,000 for that program.

A major drawback of SB 6438 is the provision that prohibits the public release of data collected from broadband service providers.  This lack of transparency creates a hurdle to public verification of data and a barrier to ensuring that all communities have ubiquitous broadband and quality service.  Gov. Gregoire signed the bill into law on March 31, 2008; it will go into effect later this year on June 12, 2008.

West Virginia Adopts Legislation to Provide Broadband to Underserved Areas

Thanks to new legislation, West Virginia is one step closer to meeting its goal of universal high speed Internet by 2010.  Last week, Gov. Joe Manchin signed into law HB 4637, a bill he proposed, which will create a Broadband Deployment Fund and a Broadband Deployment Council to extend high speed Internet access to unserved areas of West Virginia.  The bill has three main components: it establishes a state Broadband Development Council, provides for a mapping project, and creates a deployment plan.

One drawback of the legislation is that the mapping plan set forth is very broad and the council is authorized to delegate much of the mapping project to an outside organization.  If the council does delegate a large part of the mapping project to an outside organization, it is critical that  any of the data related to broadband availability, connectivity speeds or existing infrastructure be collected at a census block level and be given to the Broadband Deployment Council, a public body, for verification.  Public interest organizations, such as the Center for Public Integrity, Public Knowledge, and Free Press, have all highlighted the need for underlying mapping data to be aggregated by a public body, as a means of protecting broadband consumers.  Doing so ensures that the mapped data is an accurate depiction of the broadband infrastructure landscape.

Another drawback is that the Broadband Deployment Council is heavily weighted towards industry representation, opening the possibilities of biased findings and hindering the committee's ability to protect the public interest.  While the Council has nine members from different segments of the community, including a representative from the Communications Workers of America, telecommunication industry representatives have four of the nine seats on the council.

Lastly, HB 4637 will provide for the development of a strategy and mechanism to extend broadband access to unserved areas across West Virginia by stimulating demand for those services and by constructing the necessary infrastructure to meet that demand.  In an effort to minimize deployment cost, West Virginia decided to limit public funding of broadband to only specific unserved areas.  In order to receive state money for broadband build-out it must not be economically feasible for service providers to build-out to the unserved area or state money must be needed to make it economical for broadband service providers to build-out to the unserved area.

Idaho Recognizes Broadband as a Key Component To Education

Slow bandwidth in schools limits potential opportunities for students, creating a major economic and policy challenge for the U.S.  As Keith Kruger, CEO of the Consortium for School Networking, stated "We need wise investment in broadband in our classrooms, one that enables a robust infrastructure and continuous innovation."  But by using broadband, schools are able to run more advanced applications that increase learning opportunities, such as video streaming, videoconferencing, secure data submission, voice over IP, digital downloading, online courses and 1:1 computing. 

Taking a page from the Utah Education Network and recognizing the increased educational opportunities broadband can offer citizens,  Idaho state legislators recently passed House Bill 543 to establishes a statewide educational broadband network to link public schools, universities, and private industry.

HB 543 would use broadband Internet with a bandwidth high enough to support two-way interactive video and consisting primarily of fiber optic transmission media, to deliver advanced high school and college curriculum and ongoing teacher training on an equitable basis throughout the state. The legislation charges the Department of Administration with coordinating the development, outsourcing and implementation of a statewide network for education.  

The bill was also designed to allow Idaho to "leverage its statewide purchasing power for the IEN to promote private sector investment in telecommunications infrastructure that will benefit other technology applications such as telemedicine, telecommuting, telegovernment and economic development."  Statewide economic development impacts will specifically be considered in the network's implementation and development.  The hope is that, in the future, Idaho state agencies will migrate into the network.