USF Expansion Likely Recommendation of Broadband Plan
The FCC is considering a recommendation that the Universal Service Fund (USF) Lifeline and Link-up programs be expanded to cover broadband in its National Broadband Plan due to be released in February, said Brian David, director of adoption and use of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative. David spoke Friday at a meeting at which the U.S. Broadband Coalition released a report on “Bridging the Divide.”
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“There’s a copious amount of evidence in the record and suggestions that we should” expand the USF program to cover broadband, David said. “How to do that is the question in front of us.” For example, he said, the commission could “enable a public-private partnership” that links service providers with PC makers and non-profits to deliver computers to those who otherwise can’t afford to own them.
David provided examples of the kinds of programs the FCC may recommend in the national plan. “As one example of the flavor of that, we could create a program that puts a PC in the home of families with school-age kids who qualify for free and reduced [price] lunch,” he said. “How about a national digital literary corps? This would be an opportunity for kids, 8th grade and above, and adults to engage in both community service activity and something where they are teaching digital literacy to the community all around them.” Another potential recommendation is a national help desk for those “who have fear of technology” and can’t solve problems connecting to the Internet without help.
David said the report will look at what has been done so far to promote broadband deployment, delineate a series of next steps, including those the FCC and other government agencies can take, authority FCC may need form Congress to do more and recommendations for the private and nonprofit sector. “We are going to prioritize [recommendations], sort of tier one and tier two,” he said. “Tier two doesn’t mean that they're not good ideas, it just means that in our estimation if you have 40 ideas, you may not have any ideas. You need to narrow it down and get focus and get consensus in a broader way.”
Data gathered so far by the FCC on broadband adoption shows deep potential problems that will be addressed in the report, David said. “You have a series of slices of data that tells us that there remains a problem in segments,” he said. “It’s rapidly becoming true to me that it will be more important … in the near future to have high-speed Internet access at home than it was any number of years ago to have a telephone at home. The quantity and the importance of the information being delivered online makes it so.”
Data so far shows that the broadband adoption rate for blacks and Hispanics is 10-15 percent behind average adoption and the rate for those 65 and above is 38 percent below that of those 30 and younger, David said. The adoption rate for high school dropouts is 65 percent below that of college graduates, he said. Those who make under $30,000 per year have a 50 percent lower adoption rate than those who make more than $100,000 annually.
The coalition report identifies similar problems and offers options. “Even with the strong growth in broadband adoption and use since the nascent years of the Internet in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there remains a persistent Digital Divide in America -- that is, a gap between those who are enjoying effective use of information and communications technology and those who are not,” the report said.
Coalition Chairman Jim Baller said the group is too large and diverse to reach consensus on most issues. “We've made quite a bit of progress, not enough progress to make recommendations as such, but enough to identify dozens of policy options,” he said. “We've come a long way. We've still got a long way to go.”