Earlier today I attended a briefing by Dr. Rob Atkinson on the release of his report, "Framing a National  Broadband Policy."   He began by providing a brief overview of the report and then allowing Blair Levin, former Chief of Staff to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt & one of our Chairmen, Larry Irving to add their comments to the dialogue.

Atkinson did a great job of breaking down the issues and solutions to broadband deployment and adoption with 3 straight forward points.

1. Identifying the gaps-- he mentioned a number of existing programs that hold great promise including ConnectKentucky, and a dynamic online mapping program developed at VA Tech.

2. Funding Deployment-- He addresses the need for focusing the RUS loan and grant programs to those markets where broadband has not yet been deployed.  He also suggested tax incentives to promote rural build out.

3. Closing the Digital Literacy Gap-- He pointed to some of the applications that have been developed by Microsoft, One Economy and E- North Carolina that have been successful in educating folks on how to use broadband technology and many of its applications.

While his presentation could result in one thinking that there exists a silver bullet for developing and implementing policies to ensure that every American could have affordable access to broadband, all three commentors made it clear that the political compexities of the issues make it a much more daunting task. 

Blair Levin offered some interesting insights as he couched them as the way things are versus the way they should be (the difference in perspective from being a policy maker and a market analyst).  He made mention of a number of successful state and local programs for mapping and deployment including Governor Spitzer's plans for addressing broadband penetration in upstate New York to a CA report that looks at multiple tactical approaches as opposed to one single approach for all areas.  Levin agreed with Atkinson that the issues of Universal Broadband access are seperate and distinct from the current Net Neutrality debate.  And both commented that if the amount of energy that has been expended on Net Neutrality could be focused on Universal Access, that we would be much closer to resolving that issue.

Larry Irving also provided a good deal of insight about state and other programs that are working to address the issue.  He agreed with Atkinson that the first step must be to address the mapping issue and that by leveraging the success of programs like ConnectKentucky into a National policy could go a long way to seperating myth from reality about broadband deployment.  He suggested that there is work to be done internationally to develop a common language and metrics for measuring broadband deployment.  He also raised the importance of encouraging investment in higher speeds that would spur innovation.

All in all it was a very intersting and engaging discussion.  And whether you agree or disagree with the specific details of Dr. Atkinson's proposal, he has developed the most thoughtful and thorough report on  addressing broadband deployment and adoption.