Unleashing Waves of Innovation: Transformative Broadband for America’s Future

A white paper prepared by a national collaboration of higher education organizations, including WICHE, describing the need for a national broadband strategy that begins with America’s colleges, universities, schools, libraries and hospitals.  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes $7.2 Billion to extend broadband network connectivity to unserved and underserved communities to be distributed by the Department of Commerce and the Department of Agriculture.  The contributing authors/organizations propose a national broadband strategy and rationale that build on higher education’s success and experience with advanced networks and, in particular, their efforts to ensure that high quality educational programs reach the broadest audiences.