Two Birds, One Stone

By Brad

Via The Hill‘s Sara Jerome, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.)  has introduced a bill in the House aimed at spurring broadband deployment by mandating infrastructure be installed when federal highways are constructed:

“This legislation is a creative approach to more rapidly deploy broadband service, promote competition and do so with limited federal dollars,” Eshoo said. “This ‘dig once’ policy would expand broadband at a fraction of the cost by including the conduit as roads are being built.”

Rep. Eshoo garnered praise from the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. Their official statement:

“We applaud Rep. Eshoo for introduction of the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act of 2011, which will facilitate the further deployment of broadband service throughout the U.S. We look forward to working with the Rep. Eshoo and other policymakers on creative solutions to lower the cost of broadband deployment so that every American can benefit from this important service.”