On March 23, 2015, President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum that established the Broadband Opportunity Council (Council) to research efforts the Federal government could undertake to expand and deploy broadband and to address Federal regulatory barriers.
The Council has worked over the past several months to develop specific recommendations to increase broadband deployment, competition, and adoption, and issued a final report that includes the following four broad recommendations:
- Modernize Federal programs to expand program support for broadband investments;
- Empower communities with tools and resources to attract broadband investment and promote meaningful use;
- Promote increased broadband deployment and competition through expanded access to Federal assets; and,
- Improve data collection, analysis and research on broadband.
The deployment and expansion of broadband networks in rural communities throughout California is a high priority for our member counties. As such, RCRC responded to the Council’s Request for Comments earlier this year to highlight some of the barriers to deployment and expansion of broadband services in rural communities. RCRC is pleased to see that several of the recommendations we have commented toward may be addressed as part of a series of administrative actions the various Federal agencies will implement over the course of the next several years, namely opportunities to modernize Federal programs to expand eligibility for broadband investments. RCRC will continue working with State and Federal policymakers and regulatory agencies to assist in the expansion of broadband deployment and other new and emerging technologies. The Council’s final report is available here.