Eshoo’s conduit bill is a great start « Knight Center Community Connection

May 19, 2009

Last Friday, U.S. Representative Anna Eshoo (D-California) introduced the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act which would require that when road construction projects are paid for with federal dollars, “an appropriate number” of broadband conduits must be laid down as part of the construction to “accommodate multiple broadband providers.” Requiring this of already planned construction projects will spare communities from having to tear up the roads a second time, resulting in lower overall costs of future upgrades to the nation’s broadband infrastructure.

In a press release, Eshoo said, “According to industry experts, more than half of the cost of new broadband deployment is attributable to the expense of tearing up and repaving roads. By putting the broadband conduit in place while the ground beneath the roadways is exposed, we will enable any authorized communications provider to come in later and install fiber-optic cable at far less cost...”