Stimulus Bill: Bucks for Broadband

On Tuesday, February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law a $787 billion dollar stimulus package. $7.2 billion dollars will go towards broadband projects, with the U.S. Department of Commerce running a $4.7 billion dollar program and the remaining $2.5 billion falling under the Direction of the Department of Agriculture.

Notably, the bill stipulates that projects funded via the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) must adhere to "nondiscrimination and openness principles." Specifically, the agency must ensure that the recipients of the funding follow the FCC's 2005 Broadband Policy Statement. This statement, while deemed "advisory," set forths the Commission's 4 net neutrality principles:

• To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected
nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of
their choice.

• To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected
nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement.

• To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected
nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal devices that
do not harm the network.

• To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected
nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to competition among network providers,
application and service providers, and content providers.

Some industry experts believe that this requierment was a clever way for Congress to address net neutrality issues in a "back-door" fashion. Moreover, experts disagree as to whether these provisions will really serve Congress' intended goal: to increase broadband adoption across the United States.

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