WASHINGTON –At least one issue on Capitol Hill brings together Republicans, Democrats, the tech industry and the White House: legislation to expand high-speed Internet access nationwide, especially for rural, tribal and other remote areas.
The push comes after a new report that an estimated 25 percent of households do not have access to broadband either because of prohibitive costs or limited availability.
Broadband expansion has been a signature initiative of the Obama administration, and now Congress is hopping on board with the effort, pressing legislation that aligns closely with recommendations made in a White House report released in September.
“Much of the easy work has been done,” the report said. “Lowering barriers to deployment and fostering market competition can drive down price, increase speeds, and improve service and adoption rates for all markets.” it
The recommendations are a result of work by the Broadband Opportunity Council, created by President Barack Obama in March to develop a strategy for delivering high-speed Internet to areas that lack it.
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology has started work on a series of bills aimed at improving broadband expansion by allowing more access to federal lands and infrastructure and streamlining the permitting processes.
So far, the bill that appears to have the most momentum is HR 3805, the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act, designed to expand high-speed Internet access by requiring states to consider installing broadband conduits at the same time federally funded highway projects are under construction.
Lawmakers hope the so-called dig-once legislation would save money and encourage broadband investments by reducing the costs for providers to put more cables underground.
“It is so common sense that I wonder why we didn’t come up with this a decade ago,” said ranking Democrat Anna Eshoo of California, who sponsored the dig-once bill along with chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. The bill, which was endorsed by the committee on both sides of the aisle, has more than 25 co-sponsors. Eshoo introduced similar bills in 2009 and 2011.
Although the bill didn’t pass on those two previous attempts, it did provide some inspiration for a similar executive order issued in June 2012.
The order requires federal agencies to ensure that broadband infrastructure projects coincide with highway construction whenever possible to reduce companies’ costs of expanding their high-speed Internet networks.
The dig-once legislation, however, goes further. It would specifically require states to evaluate the need for broadband conduit — a pipe that could hold fiber-optic cables — to be installed at the same time as a federally funded highway construction project. If the evaluation shows the need to install the pipes in that area in the next 15 years, it would have to be installed at the same time as the highway construction.
Large portions of broadband networks run through the public right-of-way in the space next to highways or directly underneath the roadways, depending on the amount of space available. The Federal Highway Administration has estimated that digging up and rebuilding roads can contribute to 90 percent of the costs for expanding broadband networks.
Walden said piggybacking the two projects “will reduce the costs of broadband deployment significantly.”
Digital-rights advocacy group Public Knowledge applauded the measure, saying it would “expedite and dramatically lower the cost to providers, encouraging competition and making future upgrades easier.”
“This straightforward, common sense approach has worked in those local communities that have adopted it,” said Kate Forscey, government affairs associate counsel at Public Knowledge.
“Broadband is now as critical an infrastructure as our roads and highways. By passing this bill, Congress will allow fiber providers to leverage our national highway system to build the information super-highway of the future.”
Broader Efforts for Improvements Congressional efforts to improve broadband could go well beyond the dig-once policy. Republicans and Democrats on the House Communications and Technology subcommittee also expressed broad support for five discussion drafts of bills that would align closely with recommendations made in the administration’s September broadband report.
One of those proposals would require an inventory of federal assets such as utility poles, communications towers and cables that could be used by broadband providers as they expand or upgrade their networks.
Another would streamline the permitting process of federal land agencies so it is easier for broadband providers to build infrastructure on public land. The U.S. government owns around 640 million acres, or 28 percent of land in the country, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Required historical preservation and environmental protection reviews would also be the targets of a simplified process.
Jeb Benedict, vice president of federal regulatory affairs and regulatory counsel at the Internet, phone and TV services provider Centurylink, said that streamlining the permit process will help reduce the time and costs associated with expanding or upgrading broadband networks.
Centurylink often faces wait-times of 6 to 12 months for permits from federal land agencies, while permits for state and private lands usually take just a few weeks, Benedict said.