Critique from the man who wrote our national broadband plan

A week ago the National Broadband Plan turned four years old. The Washington Post took the opportunity to ask one of the principal architects of the plan – Blair Levin – to assess the consequences. 

A week ago the National Broadband Plan turned four years old. The Washington Post took the opportunity to ask one of the principal architects of the plan – Blair Levin – to assess the consequences.

Levin stressed that broadband is constantly changing, repeating what the team said four years ago, “This plan is in beta and always will be.”

But when it came to our broadband as a national policy and resource, Levin answered questions with questions:

“One is, are you driving fiber deeper? Are you using spectrum more effectively? Are you getting everybody on? And are you using the platforms to deliver public goods more effectively?”

The answer, he said, is “It's mixed on all of them.”

Levin’s clearest regret is on top of the news nearly every day. “We really wanted to deal with data,” he said. “That is to say, privacy and security. Because data is really the fuel that drives all this. There's a tremendous amount of value there.”

Read the whole interview here. 

A report card on the nation’s 4-year-old broadband plan — from the man who wrote it (Washington Post, Mar. 22, 2014)