Sidebar: Additional broadband stimulus plans literature

Down Payment on Our Digital Future, Free Press, www.freepress.net/files/DownPayment_DigitalFuture.pdf.

TIA Recommends Specific Broadband Incentives for Economic Stimulus Plan, the Telecommunications Industry Association, www.tiaonline.org/news_events/press_room/press_releases/2008/PR-1211_TIA_Recommends_Specific_Broadband_Incentives_for_E.cfm.

Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America drove home the importance these broadband build-out plans: "The way they built the roads and the streets of the 20th century, they can build the roads and the streets of the 21st century." The U.S. today is at a critical juncture in telecommunications history. As the government contemplates options for economic recovery and the nation's need for next-generation broadband access, one thing is almost certain: Major investments in this critical infrastructure are desperately needed, and many groups have developed innovative ideas on how best to undertake these interventions.