HILL BRIEFS

Foundation Urges U.S. To Look Abroad For Broadband Strategies

Thu. May 1, 2008


Technology. The federal government should craft a bold broadband strategy and create incentives for deployment, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation urged today in a report that examined high-speed Internet policies in nine nations. While the United States should not assume that practices in one nation will automatically work in another, policymakers can learn valuable lessons from abroad, the think tank said. The Swedish government, for example, allocated more than $800 million to spur broadband deployment, particularly in rural areas. For the United States to match the investment as a share of gross domestic product, it would need to invest more than $30 billion.