National Broadband: Policies and Opportunities for Higher Education

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) was signed into law on February 17, 2009. The broadband initiatives funded in the act ($7.2 billion) are intended to accelerate broadband deployment across the United States. The Recovery Act authorizes the FCC to create a National Broadband Plan that seeks to ensure that all people of the United States have access to broadband capability and establishes benchmarks for meeting that goal.

Steve Midgley heads the FCC's Education team working on the National Broadband Plan. He will introduce the broadband plan and some of the areas his team has been investigating, including online content; distance learning; standards, transparency, and interoperability; and educational broadband infrastructure.