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New Web Portal Serves as Collaborative Compilation of Broadband Programs

State utility regulators unveiled a new Web portal that will serve as an interactive compilation of State and federal programs dealing with broadband expansion and other advanced telecommunications services projects.

The Website—www.BroadbandBestPractices.org—is being developed by the State members of the Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Services. It is being maintained by the National Regulatory Research Institute, an independent research agency specializing in utility and regulatory practices. The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners provided the site a financial grant to help in its development.

BroadbandBestPractices.org will provide a searchable reference guide to broadband expansion programs across the country. With nearly $7 billion in broadband funding opportunities available in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Website will be a tool for State and federal policymakers, consumer advocates, industry officials, and the general public seeking to learn about different broadband programs and related information.

Users will be able to research different projects and add information about their own in a collaborative fashion.

"BroadbandBestPractices.org will be the place to go for those responsible for pursuing greater broadband deployment in their State," said NARUC President Frederick Butler. "The site will be an interactive, dynamic atmosphere that will embody the spirit of Web 2.0: Collaboration."

Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission member Larry S. Landis, who serves as State Chair of the Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Services, said the Web site will be a crucial resource for State commissions and other agencies designated by governors as evaluators of proposed programs, as they determine how best to utilize the ARRA broadband grants.

"The intent is to provide a State regulator, State agency staff member, or other organization seeking to undertake a new broadband program a venue to compare and contrast projects that are already in existence," said District of Columbia Public Service Commission Chair and Joint Conference member Betty Ann Kane, who led the project. "BroadbandBestPractices.org will be open, transparent, and accessible to anyone who is interested in bringing high-quality broadband services to all Americans. We also hope to encourage programs selected for funding under each of the three phases of the ARRA stimulus programs to participate in this Website as funding for those projects is announced."

NARUC is a non-profit organization founded in 1889 whose members include the governmental agencies that are engaged in the regulation of utilities and carriers in the fifty States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. NARUC's member agencies regulate telecommunications, energy, and water utilities. NARUC represents the interests of State public utility commissions before the three branches of the Federal government.