Published: October 26, 2008 12:35 am      

Connecting to the world

New act of Congress will give idea of where the nation stands on access to broadband

FAIRMONT — With the recent passage of the Broadband Data Improvement Act in Congress, the country is moving toward more broadband initiatives.

Connected Nation Inc. is a national nonprofit that focuses on broadband issues, primarily those administered at the state level.

Phillip Brown, national policy director for Connected Nation, said the organization got started six or seven years ago in Kentucky with the Connect Kentucky project, an effort to improve the state’s economy and overall standing in regards to technology. The goal was to create a better educated workforce and to ensure that as many citizens as possible had access to high-speed Internet and the benefits of broadband.

The organization took its model nationwide about two years ago because of the successful results in Kentucky, and other states were interested in replicating what was done. Connected Nation was created in February 2007 as the parent organization for various statewide initiatives across the country, Brown said.

Earlier this month, the Broadband Data Improvement Act, or S. 1492, was passed in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

“The bill was a very great development in terms of congressional and federal involvement in broadband,” Brown said.

“We very much believe that it is the foundation of a national broadband policy. The need for a national broadband policy has been a hot topic for the past couple years.”

The first section of the law is designed to give direction to federal agencies, he said. Those directives are aimed to improve the data that the federal government collects on broadband activity and also to gather other forms of information.

The second part of the act establishes a national grant program for states to create broadband initiatives. This grant program, which Brown called “a cornerstone,” puts responsibility for adopting broadband policies in the hands of the states. Efforts to create broadband availability maps or to increase broadband adoption are best administered at the state level, he said.

“Every state is different,” Brown said. “Every state’s adoption rate is different.”

Also, states have different regulatory agencies in charge of their telecommunications industry, he said.

Brown said broadband adoption requires outreach, education, and using local applications that directly impact how people lead their lives. A community — from local government and business to health care and tourism — is most capable of determining what improvements need to be made to its telecommunications.

“Broadband erases distance,” he said. “It eliminates the need for proximity to traditional centers of industries. It allows much more opportunities in different sectors.”

Connected Nation has already created a broadband availability map — which is one piece of a comprehensive broadband initiative — for West Virginia. These maps are “purpose-driven tools” to identify coverage and look into expansion, Brown said.

West Virginia can apply for a grant from the federal government through the Department of Commerce, he said. Then the state can take the next step and move toward household adoption of broadband, which means more jobs, training and education.

In the 21st century, high-speed Internet is becoming a more essential infrastructure for improving business and jobs in communities, Brown said. Employers don’t want to relocate to places that lack broadband.

“Companies and industries, they can’t do business without high-speed Internet,” he said.

Now that Congress has taken the initiative to create the grant program, the next step is to actually provide funding, Brown said.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller sponsored the original idea for the Broadband Data Improvement Act and played a big role in its development and passage.

“Sen. Rockefeller is active in broadband policy,” Brown said. “I would certainly consider him to be a leader in terms of broadband policy in Congress.”

“He feels very strongly about improving broadband in the United States,” Steven Broderick, press secretary to Rockefeller, said. “If the U.S. is truly going to compete, then every part of our country ... (has) to be connected to the Internet and have access to broadband.”

Not only do schools need access to these high-speed connections, but broadband is also very necessary for local small businesses and economic development, he said.

To examine the broadband situation in the country, the act encourages a number of federal agencies to put together a composite picture of what’s happening. The law also establishes a grant program where a state nonprofit can enter into a partnership with a private company to employ broadband, Broderick said.

He said this enactment is a way to look at the barriers to broadband in West Virginia and how to overcome them. It will give an accurate picture of broadband services in the state.

“The senator has felt strongly about broadband for a long time,” Broderick said of Rockefeller.

“Our Internet broadband infrastructure is sorely lacking. Other nations have jumped ahead of us by leaps and bounds.”

Broadband has become essential for business and learning, and the United States can’t afford to fall behind, he said.

“People need to have (broadband), and there’s no reason that we can’t have it,” Broderick said. “We need accuracy. It means jobs, and it means opportunities far and wide for people.”

For more information, visit www.connectednation.org.

E-mail Jessica Legge at jlegge@timeswv.com.