Author: admin

On a cold February morning 13 years ago, President Bill Clinton made history by signing the  Telecommunications Act of 1996 into law. It was the first signing at the Library of Congress and the first to be streamed live over the Internet. This symbolism was intended to capture the legislation’s promise of bringing  the information revolution to the doorstep of every American. As President Clinton signed a bill he described as “truly revolutionary” and that would “protect consumers against monopolies,” he spoke of the future the law would bring. “Soon, working parents will be able to check up on their children in class via computer,” he said. “On a rainy Saturday night, you’ll be able to order up every movie ever produced or every symphony ever
created in a minute’s time.”

Americans are still waiting on the promise of this digital revolution.

Over the past decade, the telecommunications sector has undergone a vast transformation fueled by rapid technological growth and subsequent evolution of the marketplace. Much of the U.S. policy debate over the evolving telecommunications infrastructure is framed within the context of  a “national broadband policy.”

Broadband network deployment projects represent large scale, long term investments that affect the overall productivity of economic activity in the geographic areas in which they are built, and thus fit the conventional definition of infrastructure. But they also have several characteristics that distinguish them from traditional infrastructure projects. These unique characteristics may dictate that government programs in support of broadband deployment be structured differently than conventional infrastructure programs.