Nov 7, 2008

As we announced earlier this year, in addition to the 3rd annual Tech Policy Summit, we will hosting a new conference in Silicon Valley called the Regional Broadband Innovation (RBI) Summit & Expo on Earth Day, April 22, 2009.

The RBI Summit will showcase broadband technologies and applications and will offer community and business leaders best practices for improving Internet access and usage in their areas. The idea for the event came from conversations that took place at the last Tech Policy Summit about Governor Schwarzenegger's California Broadband Task Force, and we're excited about the opportunity to follow-up on some of the great work that's being done to enhance broadband.

Just yesterday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) hosted a broadband policy meeting of the Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Services in San Jose that featured over a dozen speakers from across the country who discussed broadband deployment and strategies for delivering advanced telecom services to all Americans.

The Joint Conference, established by section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, was reconstituted by the FCC last March, and California Public Utilities Commissioner Rachelle Chong was praised for her role in bringing the board to Silicon Valley. Along with Commissioner Chong, the summit featured state regulatory commissioners from Indiana, Oregon, Iowa, Alaska and Massachusetts, as well as FCC commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate and chairman Kevin Martin.

Indiana commissioner Larry Landis, who serves as the board's state chair, explained that the Joint Conference is focused on reaching three groups that he described as the least, the last and the lost. The "least" are the working poor who can't afford advanced services; the "last" are those who live in rural areas where broadband services aren't readily available; and the "lost" are those individuals who, for a variety of reasons, have access to broadband but have not yet embraced its value proposition. 

The speakers at the summit covered a lot of ground, providing detail on the current state of broadband and showcasing case studies from local communities that are utilizing broadband to improve delivery o telemedicine and educational services. Overall, the message was that broadband's future looks bright but that more work needs to be done to address the needs of unserved and underserved groups.

We'll write more in the coming days both about the FCC-NARUC meeting, and about our plans for the RBI Summit & Expo. Registration for the RBI Summit is open now, and is free for those of you in academia, government and nonprofits. If you're interested in speaking or sponsorsing/exhibiting, please contact us for more details.

Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, broadband, California, CPUC, FCC, NARUC, Rachelle Chong, RBI Summit, Silicon Valley