Broadband Opportunity Council Takes Aggressive Actions

WASHINGTON — The Broadband Opportunity Council, which was created by President Obama by executive order last March and was tasked with producing specific recommendations to increase broadband deployment, competition and adoption, announced that Federal Agencies will take dozens of actions over the next 18 months. These include commitments to:

• Modernize Federal programs valued at approximately $10 billion to include broadband as an eligible program expenditure, such as the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Community Facilities (CF) program, which will help communities around the country bring broadband to health clinics and recreation centers;


• Create an online inventory of data on Federal assets, such as Department of the Interior (DOI) telecommunications towers, that can help support faster and more economical broadband deployments to remote areas of the country;


• Streamline the applications for programs and broadband permitting processes to support broadband deployment and foster competition; and


• Create a portal for information on Federal broadband funding and loan programs to help communities easily identify resources as they seek to expand access to broadband.

The full recommendations are available in the USDA's report, "Broadband Opportunity Council Report and Recommendations"

The Council will monitor agencies’ progress in implementing the action items in the report and explore additional steps to further the goals set forth in the report.