Study reveals significant overbuilding in broadband stimulus

Study argues rural broadband stimulus wasn't effective [The Hill] 

Seven billion dollars of the 2009 Recovery Act was dedicated to the deployment of broadband for unserved areas. Since allocating these funds many policymakers have raised the question whether the program was effective in reaching its goals. 

A recent report from Navigant Economics reveals evidence that the broadband stimulus was not a cost-effective program and too often simply created a government funded overbuild in areas where private companies had already built broadband networks. 

Navigant analyzed a sampling of the broadband stimulus programs and found that the Rural Utilities Service funded broadband build outs to areas where 85% of the homes were already served by cable, DSL, or fixed wireless broadband. If wireless broadband is included, Navigant found that $231 million was spent to bring service to a mere 452 households that were unserved. 

The government program did not include wireless broadband in its figures, which Navigant cites as  a mistake, especially considering that many wireless speeds exceed the benchmark speeds established by the government for broadband.

Comments

[Riso]

No legislator, in any state, shluod want any form of network neutrality legislation or regulation, whether it's the Google/Verizon one or anyone else's. The Net has survived and prospered for decades without regulation. Let the camel's nose into the tent, and the Net we know and love will be gone forever. Especially since there are Commissioners at the FCC who have admitted that they're just itching to censor. What's more, the rules that the FCC has already proposed aren't neutral. They are slanted toward a large campaign contributor: Google. (And no wonder: they were written by appointees which were handpicked by Google.) They'd raise the cost of Internet service, kill competition, degrade quality of service, deter competition and deployment . We just do not want to go there. We do not even want the FCC to have any authority to regulate the Net. It's just asking for trouble.

[Vishal]

I was TV free for a long time. Then I had cable, but I didn't really watch it. And thnnen I got TiVo. Even though TiVo makes me feel like I have a To Do list and I'm slacking if he has pages of unwatched shows, I'm also super disappointed if I turn him on and he doesn't have a few things I'm dying to watch, so I'm always scouring for new things for him to record.

[Evantune]

They shouldn't include wireless broadband in their study. If the speeds and reliability of wireless broadband were comparable to DSL and cable, then I might consider canceling my cable broadband service and switching to wireless. In reality, I would never do that. The gap between the two services is too wide.

I think universal service is a good thing and should be supported.

[Paul Templeton]

Let's hope they use this report as a tool to make future programs cost-effective, not as an excuse to abandon efforts to ensure that everyone has reasonable access to broadband.