January 14, 2009
Ball State U. Lobbies Obama for Broadband Plan to Stimulate Economy
Ball State University is trying to catch President-elect Barack Obama’s attention with an economic-stimulus proposal that the university says could create 200,000 jobs in three months. The proposal, formulated by the university’s Digital Policy Institute, would bring broadband services to rural areas, which the university says will spawn manufacturing, construction, and technology jobs.
The university has enlisted the help of a Washington-based telecommunications firm to lobby Congress to have the proposal considered as part of President-elect Obama’s economic-stimulus package.
Ball State officials estimate that their plan would bring high-speed Internet service to the roughly four million households that do not have access to affordable broadband. That, officials argue, would improve quality of life for rural residents by increasing access to online-education programs and online health-care services.
Two Ball State professors working on the proposal said they had already found a way to pay for their plan: the Universal Service Fund, created in 1997 by the federal government to ensure equitable access to telecommunication services.
“I’d call our proposal ‘pre-shovel ready’ because the funds will go directly to the rural telephone companies,” Michael Hicks, director of Ball State’s Center for Business and Economic Research, said in a written statement released by the university. “Other plans would have to get filtered through government agencies and would take months to roll out, and that’s not what our country needs right now.” —David Shieh
Posted on Wednesday January 14, 2009 | Permalink |Comments
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All of the pigs want to feed at Obama’s trillion dollar trough.
Oink.
— TRB Jan 14, 06:53 PM #
Wow! As a resident of rural America and a teacher, I am heartened to see someone is trying to bring us into the 21st century.
— RMW Jan 14, 09:24 PM #
This is a brilliant idea that has proven it has some merit in the developing world-Malaysia and Ghana to name a couple. Tech infusion DOES create jobs and other opportunities.
— Robert Jones Jan 15, 07:05 AM #
This proposal has a great deal of merit. It not only addresses immediate economic stimulus but could have long-term tech infusion impacts. Worth considering.
— JL Jan 15, 10:15 AM #
True.
— Kyle David Jan 15, 05:05 PM #
TRB, I think you should see things in the perspective of technology advancement.
This is a laudable idea, and unselfish one for that matter. A plan to bring high-speed Internet service to about 4 million households is something you can’t gloss over or ridicule.
Kudos Ball State.
— Funmi Jan 15, 10:10 PM #
What a blessing it would be for people who don’t live in towns of 20,000 or more!
— Lolly Jan 23, 09:10 PM #