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What is at stake?

Some local governments across the USA have commissioned their own high-speed Internet networks and many other counties and cities are considering it. They believe municipal broadband will help make the Internet more available and affordable. But some have questioned whether governments have the expertise to ensure these networks are economically viable and do not compete unfairly with existing private broadband service. And it is not always clear how municipal broadband will reach underserved groups that are least likely to have Internet access now.

Between September 30 and October 15, 2006, Santa Clara University's Center for Science, Technology and Society and the Broadband Institute of California held a consensus conference on municipal broadband in Silicon Valley, where a municipal network was being planned that could reach over 40 cities and 2.4 million residents.

Consensus conferences have been used worldwide to engage the public in making well-informed judgments about complex technical issues. This conference involved assembling a diverse community panel of Silicon Valley residents from groups least likely to have broadband access. On the first weekend, community panelists learned about the issues by reading and discussing background briefing papers and defined their questions about municipal broadband. On the second weekend, the organizers convened a public hearing, where policy experts from government, industry, and community organizations offered a range of perspectives in response to the public panel's questions. On the third weekend, the community panelists reached consensus on policy recommendations for local governments. An advisory panel of stakeholders in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors oversaw the fairness and comprehensiveness of the criteria for choosing the community panel, the briefing materials, and the presenters at the hearing.

> Read the press release about the community panel's recommendations (Word .doc format)
> Read the recommendations (Word .doc format)

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