Misunderstanding NTIA: The Good, The Bad, and The Uncertain

While I've been critical of NTIA over the course of the stimulus to date, I've had limited opportunities to engage in a direct dialog with them, so my criticisms were really about the perception of what NTIA's doing rather than the reality.

In the last few weeks I've had a couple of opportunities to listen to and speak directly with NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling, and I've come to realize that there have been a number of misunderstandings that I've been perpetuating.

Today I want to clear the air on these misunderstandings, giving credit to NTIA for the good they're doing while also bringing up new issues I've encountered and found troubling.

The Good
- The first major misunderstanding dealt with the role of states in the BTOP review process. The impression I and many others shared was that NTIA's review process had short circuited causing them to dump all the unreviewed applications on states' doorsteps, who were utterly unprepared to vet them. In reality, what NTIA intended was for states to simply say which parts of their state were most in need of help, not determine which specific projects warrant funding. While this makes a lot of sense, unfortunately not only did observers of NTIA like myself not realize this, but I get the sense that many states didn't either. But I'm still labeling this as an overall good because at least NTIA's intent was positive.

- The second major misunderstanding was the status of BTOP's volunteer review process. In following along with the saga of Mike O'Connor as an aspiring volunteer reviewer, I and others grew increasingly concerned about if this process was working at all. Mike seemed like the best possible kind of reviewer--highly qualified and yet unbiased--but after being invited to the initial orientation never heard another word from NTIA. My concerns about this have been assuaged recently, though, as I've had a chance to talk with a couple of reviewers who did successfully go through this process. While they did describe it as unsurprisingly bureaucratic, at the same time they felt like the review teams had a good mix of expertise that allowed for a thorough review of all applications. So while there's been a lot of doubt about the efficacy of this volunteer review process, it sounds like it has been working.

- Another misunderstanding has been less about NTIA and more about America's disjointed broadband policy planning, namely that the stimulus has been handcuffed by the lack of a national broadband plan and therefore would not be as focused or effective as it could be. In talking with Mr. Strickling, I get the sense that despite the lack of formal guidance, through his conversations with broadband advocates and experts he's come to adopt a clear and comprehensive vision for how to get the most bang for his broadband bucks. While I still have concerns that I express below, I'm feeling much better that despite the lack of a plan, NTIA does have a proper vision for the future of American broadband.

- This is a very small thing, but at the Supernova conference this week in San Francisco I had the chance to ask Mr. Strickling the question: "You talk a lot about how many good applications you've received and how they won't all be able to be funded, but will you also acknowledge that there have been a number of bad applications submitted?" His response was that he assumes there are but that they don't make it to his desk. It was a great answer that while not as direct as I would've liked also didn't involve him trying to do the government two-step of trying to say that everything's always coming up roses.

The Bad
- The most troubling thing I heard was my second question to Mr. Strickling. I asked him if he planned on living up to the initial promises made about the stimulus that it would be used in part to fund testbed deployments that we could learn best practices from. His response was, and I paraphrase: if I can fund a middle mile network that covers half a state I'd rather do that than spend the same money on an unproven last mile model that serves a limited area. While I agree with the intent of trying to maximize the impact of BTOP, I find it quite troubling that the idea of supporting innovative testbeds has been thrown out the window. NTIA has some tough decisions to make as there are lots of good applications they have to pick winners from, but I hope they don't pass up this potentially once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to plant the seeds of innovative high quality sustainable last mile deployments across America.

- The other troubling thing I heard was something I hope was just a slip and not indicative of government's overall thinking. Mr. Strickling shared that he's focused on supporting projects that can point the way towards a sustainable universal broadband future. That's something I support wholeheartedly. But then he said that since there's likely no more money coming from Congress, that what he's trying to set the table up for is private industry to pick up the slack once BTOP money runs out. What was missing from this statement is the possibility of communities stepping up to pick up that slack. I'd thought in this new administration we'd evolved past the notion that the only way to solve our broadband problems is through market-driven private entities, that there's value in allowing communities to determine their own broadband destinies. Again, my hope is that Mr. Strickling just forgot to mention public broadband, but if he didn't then this is even more troubling than the decision to not support the concept of testbeds.

The Uncertain
- The most surprising revelation I had was when Mr. Strickling shared that NTIA is in the process of setting itself as the lead Internet policy shop in DC. When asked how this would interact with the FCC, Mr. Strickling suggested that NTIA's actions were supported by FCC Chairman Genachowski, and that the FCC would continue to take the lead on regulatory issues but that NTIA would serve as the coordinating policy entity on Internet policy. I love that there's going to be more focus put specifically on Internet policy, and NTIA is pretty well positioned to do this with their role with ICANN. I also think it makes some sense to have the entity charged with leading Internet policy creation be outside of the FCC as we need to find ways to start some of these policy conversations over from scratch rather than trying to make the round peg of Internet applications fit within the square holes of existing FCC regulations. But at the same time I wonder how turf wars will be avoided on Internet policy. I'm particularly interested in what role will be defined for NTIA's Internet policy shop in the FCC's national broadband plan. While this could ultimately be a good thing, I'm withholding judgment until we actually see it up and running as I'm still a little wary that this is going to lead to more confusion than progress.

Conclusion
With all these thoughts in mind, I'm both more and less optimistic about NTIA. Overall I'd say these revelations have been a net positive, and after having a couple of opportunities to speak directly with Mr. Strickling the sense that I'd gotten from others who know him that he's the right man for this job has been confirmed. But at the same time the jury's still ultimately out as NTIA hasn't start releasing the tough decisions it's in the process of making of who deserves to get broadband stimulus bucks. So only time will tell. But in the meantime I'm committed to trying to engage in a more robust dialog with NTIA to make sure we don't allow these misunderstandings to take hold and negatively influence the perception of the good work Mr. Strickling and his hard-working team at NTIA are doing.