Joanne Hovis, CLIC’s CEO and owner of CTC Technology and Energy, will be testifying at the House Energy & Commerce Communications & Technology Subcommittee tomorrow during a hearing titled “ Closing the Digital Divide: Broadband Infrastructure Solutions.”
During her testimony, Joanne will be offering “a better game plan,” one whose strategies “address the core reason the digital divide persists: a lack of return on investment in many areas of the country.” Its six components include:
- Support public-private partnerships that ease the economic challenges of constructing rural and urban infrastructure;
- Incent local efforts to build infrastructure — ones that private service providers can use — by making bonding and other financing strategies more feasible;
- Target meaningful infrastructure capital support to rural and urban broadband deserts, not only to attract private capital but also to stimulate private efforts to gain or retain competitive advantage;
- Empower local governments to pursue broadband solutions of all types, including use of public assets to attract and shape private investment patterns, so as to leverage taxpayer-funded property and create competitive dynamics that attract incumbent investment;
- Require all entities that benefit from public subsidy to make enforceable commitments to build in areas that are historically unserved or underserved; and
- Maximize the benefits of competition by requiring that all federal subsidy programs are offered on a competitive and neutral basis for bid by any qualified entity.
Her full testimony can be found here. You can view the committee hearing here. It is scheduled for tomorrow, January 30, at 10:00 a.m. Tweet it @localnetchoice.