The Divide: Craig Settles on broadband funding and the need for accountability

Longtime broadband industry advocate and consultant Craig Settles has an idea of how to accelerate Internet deployment and adoption in communities: prioritize telehealth.

As he wrote in a recent op-ed, telehealth paired with community broadband has "huge financial and quality-of-life benefits." While the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for telehealth solutions, it's also highlighted how meaningful regular access to telehealth services can be for many communities – and how crucial broadband is to making that a reality.

To that end, Settles is advocating for communities to adopt six telehealth strategies "to provide public health benefits cradle-to-grave." Those include: 1. Reimagining the doctor visit; 2. Marrying chronic healthcare and home care; 3. Enhancing emergency response and trauma care; 4. Mental healthcare needs; 5. Improving senior care; 6. Reimagining hospital care.

"Saved from a stroke by telehealth, and in my profession as an broadband expert, I find myself in a unique position to 'pay it forward' by uniting community broadband teams and healthcare stakeholders through telehealth projects that transform healthcare delivery. There is the added bonus that telehealth will drive broadband adoption," said Settles in an interview with Broadband World News.

Settles joined as our guest on The Divide podcast this week to talk more about broadband deployment and adoption in the United States, including what's gone wrong with broadband funding in the US so far and why the rules around implementation for the Biden administration's $65 billion broadband bill are crucial for avoiding those same mistakes.

For example, while incumbents are lobbying the federal government to set strong rules against "overbuilding," this approach would hurt communities, said Settles.

"If you don't overbuild, that entrenches the incumbents and all of their monopoly power," he said. "So you've got to allow cities and smaller providers to be able to build in those areas where there's need for broadband."

[Ed. note: The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) implemented via the broadband bill addresses the issue Settles raises with the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) by stipulating that service providers must apply the subsidy to all plans. However, in public filings, some ISPs are lobbying the FCC to exclude certain legacy plans from that mandate.]

Related episodes:

• The Divide: How broadband impacts public health

— Nicole Ferraro, site editor, Broadband World News; senior editor, global broadband coverage, Light Reading. Host of "The Divide" on the Light Reading Podcast.