Alliance promotes U.S. national broadband policy

A new alliance of industry leaders from both sides of the political aisle is coming together to try to get a national broadband strategy on the top of the next U.S. president’s agenda, regardless of who that might be.

The Internet Innovation Alliance is being headed by Larry Irving, who headed the NTIA under Bill Clinton and Bruce Mehlman, who was Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Technology Policy in the current Bush administration, and already features an impressive roster of what it is calling Broadband Ambassadors. Included in that group are Ciena CEO Gary Smith, TiVO CEO Tom Rogers and Craig Moffett, Senior Analyst at Sanford Bernstein.

“So much of new administration’s policies are dictated by the times they inherit,” Mehlman said in an interview. “The next administration will inherit economic uncertainty, the need to be more globally competitive, and the need to cut costs in health care, reduce energy consumption and educate more students where they are and at their pace. Whether the solutions to these problems are liberal or conservative, broadband plays an important role in each.”

In addition to expanding broadband penetration and adoption, the IIA wants to encourage the next U.S. administration to provide investment incentives and encourage public-private partnerships that will expand broadband infrastructure and availability, as well as to adopt policies and incentives to develop new applications and innovations that enable the U.S. to be more competitive globally particularly in areas such as energy efficiency, health care and education.

Mehlman acknowledged that past efforts to promote a national U.S. broadband policy have floundered, in part because while everyone supports a national broadband strategy – thus making it a less-than-interesting campaign issue – there hasn’t been a clear path to determining what to do. What has worked elsewhere won’t necessarily work here, Mehlman added.