Obama Administration's Wireless, Broadband Agenda Targets Economic Growth

Earlier this month, President Obama announced plans to expand broadband and wireless Internet access to every school and library in the U.S. The new initiative, ConnectEd, has a goal of connecting 99 percent of students to the Internet within five years by having the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) modernize and leverage its existing E-Rate program. The president claimed that millions of students lack access to high-speed broadband and fewer than 20 percent of educators say that their school's internet connection meets their needs, particularly those in rural America. The ConnectEd program will direct federal funds to support the use of new digital education tools in the classroom and provide support and training for teachers to better implement and utilize these tools. With the global education marketplace surpassing $1 trillion in value, the initiative hopes to encourage private sector innovation to produce educational devices and software that can unlock the value of the federal government's investment. Read more about the ConnectEd initiative...

Following the president's announcement of the ConnectEd program, he issued a presidential memorandum, Expanding America's Leadership in Wireless Innovation, outlining several new and ongoing federal initiatives to expand wireless and broadband connectivity throughout the U.S. In the memo, the president directs federal agencies to enhance their own efficiency and partner with the private sector to reduce their spectrum-usage, making more available for businesses and consumers. The president also called for an increase in public and private R&D activities and for implementation of accurate spectrum usage measurements, which will be overseen by a Spectrum Policy Team. The administration announced it would invest an estimated $100 million in spectrum sharing and advanced communications across several agencies. Under the new plan, the National Science Foundation will award $23 million in spectrum sharing R&D grants by September and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARP-A) will award $60 million in spectrum-sharing contracts in the next five years.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will devote an additional $17.5 million to advance spectrum and advanced communications research. They are partnering to establish a Center for Advanced Communications in Boulder, CO, where both agencies have an existing concentration of infrastructure. The center will focus on addressing the nation's advanced communication challenges, with a particular emphasis on promoting interdisciplinary research, development and testing in radio frequency technology and spectrum sharing for public safety and commercial broadband applications. The NTIA has been implementing a 2010 directive to identify 500 megahertz of spectrum for wireless broadband to increase spectrum efficiency and provide access to federally assigned spectrum bands for consumer wireless broadband. The memorandum includes further direction from the president to expand the process to encompass additional bands. Read the fact sheet about these initiatives...