Adelstein: Rural Broadband Deployment Key To U.S. Catching Up In International High-Speed Rankings [Multichannel News]
Former FCC commissioner and current nominee for USDA Rural Utilities Service administrator Jonathan Adelstein appeared before the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee yesterday for his confirmation hearing. During that hearing, Adelstein stated his belief that the key to improving America's standing in international broadband rankings of speed and adoption is the increased deployment of high-speed broadband to rural America.
Adelstein told the committee:
"I believe one of our key national priorities should be to aggressively
promote the expansion of broadband deployment and adoption. Some have argued that the reason we've
fallen so far in the international rankings is that we are more rural
than those ahead of us. If that is correct, we must cite it not as a
despairing excuse but as a clarion call to re-double our efforts to
promote rural broadband."
With the economic stimulus bill, passed by Congress earlier this year, the agency that Adelstein has been nominated to lead, the Rural Utilities Service, has $2.5 billion in grant and loan funds available for construction of broadband infrastructure in rural areas. In a Wall Street Journal article, Adelstein is quoted as telling the committee that the agency "can't afford to waste a dime of taxpayer money" in distributing the grant dollars to deploy broadband in rural communities.
As an FCC commissioner, I always found Adelstein among the most thoughtful and capable with whom I'd met over the years. We didn't agree on every issue but he was a fair person and a good listener. He also wasn't an ideologue, always willing to carefully consider the facts presented to him by a full range of stakeholders, from business leaders whose customers would be affected by the Commission's decisions to consumer advocates who argued on behalf of their constituencies.
Seems to me that the RUS is in very good hands.
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