A Blueprint for Big Broadband
The United States needs to take aggressive action to significantly expand our broadband connectivity. Now is not the time for incremental improvements; we are behind, and we must adopt a comprehensive strategy this year if we are to address the growing needs of our citizens and our economy. U.S. policy must be forward looking- we must “skate where the puck is going to be.” For these reasons, EDUCAUSE proposes the creation of a new federal Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) that, together with matching funds from the states and the private and/or public sector, should be used to build open, big broadband networks of at least 100 Mbps (scalable upwards to 1 Gbps) to every home and business by 2012. U.S. state governors and foreign heads of state have found the resources to subsidize broadband deployment; the U.S. federal government should as well.