Background: The draft stimulus package from the House Appropriations Committee Democrats not only included $6 billion for projects, but imposed open-network and build-out requirements. You can read them here and here. See pages 16-19 in the report.
The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge:
“The draft stimulus package took the right approach in insisting that money given for broadband programs have conditions to benefit the public through build-out requirements and open-network principles.
“We would like to thank Chairman Ed Markey for his diligent efforts advocating to have those conditions included in the draft bill and Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey for making those requirements part of his stimulus package.
“No doubt the big carriers will try to have those provisions stripped out of the bill, as they would like the money on their terms, not on the public’s terms. We hope Congress and the Obama Administration will resist those attempts.”
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