Delaware Association for Public Administration DAPA Public Service Reader
Economic Stimulus and Broadband: Broadband Basics for Public Administrators
—by Troy Mix | download PDF 
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provides billions of reasons for public administrators to care about broadband. To be exact, congress appropriated $7.2 billion of the stimulus package for expanding broadband access. As this money is invested, professionals in public and nonprofit settings will be relied upon to understand broadband’s capabilities and the issues and opportunities relative to broadband deployment in their organization and community.
While the terms “broadband” and “high-speed Internet” are often used interchangeably, there is far from clear consensus on broadband’s definition. Most parties agree that broadband is a fast, feature-rich, and multi-platform telecommunications solution. Broadband speeds range from about 15 times to several hundred times faster than dial-up Internet connections. The fast speeds and “always on” characteristics of broadband enable applications ranging from easily attaching large files to emails and reliably surfing banking and travel sites to quickly transferring medical images and streaming live video feeds. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), cable, fiber to the premises (FTTP), satellite, and wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) are examples of the platforms that provide broadband connections.
Major broadband policy issues relate to supply, demand, and measurement. Studies by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation (OECD) and the Pew Internet & American Life Project point to an undersupply of broadband infrastructure and service in the U.S. OECD consistently ranks the U.S. in the middle of the pack among its 30 member countries on statistics including the percent of households with broadband access and average advertised download speeds, while a 2009 Pew study reports that 46 percent of U.S. households in rural settings use broadband in the home compared to 67 percent of non-rural households. Particularly in low-density, rural areas, providers often say that they are unable to earn enough return on their investment to warrant service provision.
Demand and measurement also loom as key issues influencing the provision of broadband. Even if broadband service were universally available, the Pew Institute reports that a substantial portion of the population would not subscribe to broadband due to factors such as inability to pay and lack of interest in or knowledge of potential applications. Currently no complete map exists that measures the relative connectivity of areas across the U.S., making it difficult to track progress and target areas for investment.
Public administrators can play at least three key roles in furthering the deployment of broadband infrastructure and service. First, they can become educated about various broadband technologies and the opportunities that high-speed connections afford their organizations and communities. Next, public administrators can seek to collect and share information with the public about the current state of broadband services in the community. Third, public administrators can play a leadership role in the regional expansion of broadband infrastructure and service by implementing applications that benefit their organizations. For instance, the May 2007 issue of Governing Magazine recounted the City of Corpus Christi, Texas’s efforts to install and use a municipal Wi-Fi system that allows for remotely reading utility meters, streaming surveillance videos for public safety purposes, serving mobile employees with data on the go, and more. These investments pay off for governments by making operations more effective and efficient, and can provide the infrastructure and examples necessary to spark the expanded adoption and use of broadband by businesses and households.
In Delaware, work is underway to better understand the current state of broadband infrastructure and plan for expanding coverage and adoption. The Delaware Department of Technology and Information took the lead in preparing a proposal for ARRA funds to support broadband mapping, planning, and infrastructure improvements. Details on this proposal and all the proposals submitted nationwide can be found at www.broadbandusa.gov. In other statewide efforts, the University of Delaware’s Institute for Public Administration published a “Broadband Opportunities for Sussex County” report that details many of the broadband topics public officials should understand (www.ipa.udel.edu/publications/SussexBroadband.pdf).
With three rounds of stimulus funding anticipated, and billions of dollars yet to spend, public administrators are bound to get better acquainted with broadband in coming months.