I had a quick look at a 56 page slide deck issued last week by the FCC [pdf, 858KB] and I came away thinking that there are still too many people that confuse the need for more broadband with the need for basic IT. It is somewhat shameful that this is the impression left by a presentation by the communications regulator and policy maker in the US.
Don’t get me wrong. I would like to see all of us have access to symmetric 100 Mbps or Gbps connections at affordable prices – and by affordable, I also include the cost of government assistance (because I happen to pay taxes). But too many of the examples of broadband benefits that were contained in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan: National Purposes Update were less dependent on broadband and more in need of putting computers into the hands of more people first.
Take e-filing of taxes. The slide deck talks about savings of $2.50 for the government to process an electronic tax return instead of paper. This resulted in savings of more than $300M over 5 years. But filing taxes doesn’t need broadband; it needs computers. The amount of data exchanged between the home and IRS in e-filing is trivial.
I have written about this before [such as here and here]. Two years ago, I tied together the idea recently announced by the UK, to put the adoption of computers into the discussion of adoption rates for broadband:
Maybe Canada needs to look at targeting broadband subsidies based on income, regardless of where people live. There is a gap in the level of connectedness among lower income Canadians in urban markets as well. Maybe it is time to consider making PCs and broadband part of our social welfare system.
On another page of the FCC presentation, on the education front, there was a scary bullet:
16% of public community college campuses have high speed broadband v. 91% of research universities
Help me here. Is it really possible that nearly 1 in 10 “research universities” don’t have broadband? What kind of research goes on at these universities? Is it really possible in the year 2010 for a university in the United States to give degrees or apply for research grants without broadband connectivity for their researchers? I guess you can apply for grants, but what funding agency will actually give money to such a school? Either the statistic is wrong or the FCC should be concerned about the failure of university administrations at nearly 10% of the nation’s campuses to bring their basic research and education needs into the 1990’s, let alone the second decade of the 21st century.
Before the US gives another penny to upgrade broadband under the stimulus program, can someone help set some basic priorities? By the way, yesterday, the FCC released the results of a survey of about 5000 households, with the results interpretted to conclude that cost and digital literacy are the biggest impediments to increased broadband adoption in the US [press release, survey results, survey questions].
The FCC’s mandate may have been set too narrowly – to develop a national broadband plan. Nations really need to develop broader digital strategies – encompassing all aspects of ICT strategy.
The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit will have special sessions on Tuesday, June 8 that look at International Perspectives on ICT Strategies, followed by a session looking at Building Digital Canada. Early bird rates expire this week. Have you registered yet?