Durbin Hosts Regional Summit to Promote Broadband as Economic Development Tool

DURBIN HOSTS REGIONAL SUMMIT TO PROMOTE BROADBAND AS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TOOL

Today, U.S Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) hosted a Regional Broadband Summit in Central Illinois to help raise awareness of broadband as a regional economic development tool. Durbin says a national policy is needed to accelerate the deployment of broadband internet service to rural areas.

The Summit was an opportunity for representatives from the business, education, healthcare and network provider sectors of Central Illinois to share broadband successes, identify needs and help chart a collaborative course for a connected Illinois. Durbin also discussed legislation he intends to introduce to encourage the rapid deployment of high-quality, affordable broadband internet service, especially in rural areas.

"Broadband is an essential component of our lives, at work and at home. It has become an essential service like water, gas and electricity. Our homes and businesses need affordable access to high speed internet connections, in the same way our homes and businesses need traditional utility services," said Durbin. "Yet, for too many people living in small communities today, broadband access is still not a reality."

Two recent reports -- one issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the other by the U.S. Department of Agriculture - found that rural and farm households have access to broadband internet at approximately half the level of all U.S. households nationwide. Another respected research organization, the Pew Internet and American Life Project, found similar results. In its 2006 report, Pew found that only 18% of rural adults reported a home broadband connection, compared to 31% of urban adults. All of these studies point to a consistent conclusion: Americans living in urban areas are almost twice as likely to have home broadband access as do their rural counterparts.

"We need to close the digital divide, ensuring that rural Americans are not left behind in the 21st Century's digital economy," Durbin noted. "Whether it is through telephone wire, cable, fiber, satellite, wireless or any other medium, we need every existing and future broadband service provider to step up to the national challenge."

Durbin said broadband is critical to community and economic development, as it encourages investment, creates jobs, improves productivity, fosters innovation, and increases consumer benefits in every corner of our nation. A recent study estimated the widespread adoption of basic broadband could add $500 billion to the U.S. economy and create 1.2 million new jobs per year. The study also projected 1.2 million jobs could be created if next generation broadband technology were rapidly deployed.

Durbin noted that one of the main obstacles in the drive toward rural broadband adoption is the availability and price of broadband service in the rural regions in the state and across the nation. Even when broadband service is available in rural areas, the service is frequently more expensive and of lower quality than broadband offered in more populated areas. He also noted that President Bush's fiscal year 2008 budget cuts a mandatory broadband assistance loan program by $203 million and that the Federal Communications Commission does not have a bureau dedicated to facilitating the build out of broadband networks, which has contributed to the FCC's failure to study the problem and issue recommendations to expand access.

Durbin pointed to a consortium of schools, universities, hospitals, economic development units, elected leaders and internet service providers that have come together in Southern Illinois to form an entity, Connect SI, tasked with mapping out resources, building demand, and working with providers to build out infrastructure. "Connect SI is the type of public-private partnership that can break through the significant proprietary concerns that providers have about sharing their network resources in order to build detailed maps important to build out," Durbin said.

He also referenced Connect Kentucky, one of the most innovative organizations in the country. Since its formation in 2001, Connect Kentucky has brought state government, providers, technology companies, and economic development units together and, on a budget of only a couple million dollars per year, built incredibly detailed maps throughout the state. Just last year, broadband access increased 28 percent in Kentucky.

Durbin said the legislation he is crafting will likely include five major provisions, detailed below. Each is designed to foster competition and innovation, take advantage of public-private partnerships and expand access.

# The bill establishes a new source of federal funding to provide seed money to statewide or regional public-private partnerships designed to increase broadband access and build demand. Groups like Connect Kentucky and Connect SI would benefit from this funding source. A nationwide rollout of these types of partnerships would be less expensive and far more effective than directly paying for infrastructure.

# The bill reauthorizes and modifies the USDA's rural broadband grant, loan and loan guarantee program. Modifying the USDA's statutory authority would help ensure that federal funds and financing would be provided only to entities that will serve truly rural and underserved regions of the nation. The bill would also aim to streamline the application process by forcing USDA to issue a shorter, simpler application and decreasing the capital requirements to open the program to more applicants.

# The bill would encourage the FCC to open currently unused blocks of spectrum in order to make more spectrum available for wireless broadband uses, especially in rural areas.

# The bill would help promote the build out of municipal wireless or wired high speed internet service systems analogous to municipal water or power services for municipalities that are not served or underserved by telecom companies. Champaign and Rochelle each have active and economically sustainable municipal broadband systems, which speaks to the viability of this approach.

# Last, the bill would study the viability of setting aside Universal Service Fund dollars for the build out of broadband networks to areas that are not economically viable for private providers.

In August 2006, Durbin introduced similar legislation, the Broadband for Rural America Act, in the 109th Congress.

http://durbin.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=269781