US BROADBAND COALITION The US Broadband Coalition is a large and diverse
coalition of entities that seeks to develop consensus on as many of the components of a national broadband plan as possible.
On December 8, 2008, at an event on Capitol Hill, the Coalition issued an unprecedented Call to Action to President-elect
Barak Obama and Congress to develop a comprehensive national broadband plan. The Call to Action included a framework
for such a plan as well as a commitment by the members of the Coalition to continue to work together to explore the relevant
issues in detail. For this purpose, the Coalition formed six working groups: Needs and Opportunities, Goals, Metrics,
Availability, Adoption and Use, and Implementation.
On September 24, 2009, at an event in the main hearing room of the Federal Communications
Commission, the Coalition released its final report. The report summarizes the Coalition's consensus-building efforts
over the last year; discussed the opportunities that universal, affordable broadband connectivity create for America; analyzed
the complex issues that surround the establishment of goals for a national broadband strategy; provided numerous policy options
for stimulating deployment, adoption, and use of broadband; and presented various policy options for measuring progress and
ensuring accountability. The agenda for the event, including the list of speakers, is available here, and the full report is available here.
On Friday, November 13, 2009, at
another event in the FCC's main hearing room, the US Broadband Coalition released its report on expanding and accelerating the
adoption and use of broadband throughout the economy. The report contained a sector-by-sector analysis of barriers
to more extensive adoption and use of broadband, and it presented dozens of creative policy options to overcome these barriers.
The press release containing the agenda and list of speakers for the event is available here. The full report is available here.The slides for the event are available here.A close captioned archive of the webcast of the event is available
here.
If your organization would like to join the US Broadband Coalition, please contact Jim
Baller at jim@baller.com.
