The Broadband Opportunity Council (BOC) released a progress report. Like many of the reports that have been released by federal agencies, it’s a benchmark of what has happened and what remains to be done. Here was the overarching goal of the BOC…

President Obama in March 2015 signed the Presidential Memorandum on “Expanding Broadband Deployment and Adoption by Addressing Regulatory Barriers and Encouraging Investment and Training,” (Memorandum) creating the Broadband Opportunity Council (Council).1 The Council included 25 federal agencies and departments with missions or programs with the potential to drive broadband infrastructure investment and adoption. The Memorandum asked the Council to produce specific recommendations to increase broadband deployment, competition, and adoption through executive actions within the scope of existing agency programs, missions, and budgets.  Agencies were directed to use all available and appropriate authorities to:
* Identify and address regulatory barriers that may unduly impede either wired broadband deployment or the infrastructure to augment wireless broadband deployment;
* Encourage further public and private investment in broadband networks and services;
* Promote the adoption and meaningful use of broadband technology; and otherwise
* Encourage or support broadband deployment, competition, and adoption in ways that promote the public interest.

In September 2015, the BOC released a report that included 36 actions for agencies to take; 15 have been completed and progress has been made on many other items. Actions focused on the following recommendations…

1. Modernize federal programs to expand program support for broadband investments.
2. Empower communities with tools and resources to attract broadband investment and promote meaningful use.
3. Promote increased broadband deployment and competition through expanded access to federal assets.
4. Improve data collection, analysis, and research on broadband.

You can check out what’s been done and what hasn’t in the publication. The list is really too long to include here. They do include a plan to move forward…

The final Principals’ meeting of the Council during the Obama Administration was held on November 9, 2016. During the meeting, agencies agreed that the important work of the Council should continue through an interagency working group to be jointly chaired by NTIA and RUS. …

As noted in this progress report, agencies will continue to implement their action items. As agencies complete their action items, NTIA will post updates to the BroadbandUSA website and will coordinate with the agencies to make information available via other public events and announcements.