Hawaii Broadband Task Force Report Nearing Completion

The Hawaii Broadband Task Force was created by the 2007 Legislature to recommend how to improve broadband access in Hawaii. It has been a long road and there's always more to do. But our final report is due next month and deadlines work wonders.

A few quick summary comments:

* Broadband is fundamental to advances in education, health care, public services and economic development;

* Broadband needs to be viewed as 21st century infrastructure rather than left to be deployed as private investors find favorable relative to other opportunities;

* While Hawaii does adequately on some measures relative to other states and poorly on others, our real target needs to be catching up with the global leaders where 100Mbps and even 1Gbps is being deployed to consumers at prices comparable to our DSL and cable modem services.

The current draft is available at http://www.hbtf.org. And the report will serve as fodder for much more public discussion (sausage-making) at the 2009 Legislature.

Best, David
(Disclosure: Task Force Chair)