MODERATOR: Are we on the web right now? 
Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce. 
BLANK Susan Au Allen, president and CEO U.S. pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce, Maggie Elehwany, Vice President of government affairs and policy, national rural health association. 
Brian Fontes, CEO national emergency number association, Ronald Johnson, president and CEO, Ronson network services corp. 
Matthew chase, executive Director, National Association of development organizations. 
Sandra Rosenblith, Senior Vice President, rural local initiatives support corporation. 
Debbie Goldman, telecommunications policy Director and research economist, communications workers of America. 
Betty man netta, CEO, Argent associates. 
MODERATOR: Welcome to the roundtable on community economic development. 
I my name is Bob Atkinson from the Columbia business school in New York. 
I am not an NTIA employee or RUS or any other governmental agency. 
Anything I say is attributable solely to me. 
The topic is -- this is the last roundtable, the topic is community economic development. 
We have representatives from a number of stakeholders who share their views and make some brief comments. 
I will then moderate the roundtable discussion and the last 30 minutes of the program will be devoted to questions and comments from the audience here in the Commerce Department or from the web and teleconference. 
On that note, I would like to note I received quite a number of comments, some lengthy papers from the web and teleconference during the last session. 
I used some of those questions, but not all. 
However, every question and comment that does come in is read by NTIA, and it goes into the record. 
So, if you don't hear your question, it does not at all mean it is not being considered, every question and comment that comes in is being considered because this is a very open and transparent process and the NTIA and RUS are very eager to get comments and suggestions and ideas from the widest number of stakeholders and interested persons as possible. 
As you may know NTIA and RUS issued a request for information about two weeks ago, very comprehensive document. 
I urge everyone to read it, look at it and consider whether they can write responses to those questions and issues raised in the request for information. 
The response is due on April 13. 
Remember this is a fast process. 
NTIA and RUS are trying to accomplish a lot in a short period of time. 
People, please get your comments in by April 13. 
Let me quickly introduce our panelists for today's roundtable. 
To my immediate left is Susan Au Allen. 
Susan is national president and CEO of the U.S. pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce founded 23 years ago to educate and train Asian enterprise in the fortune 5 hundred companies and smaller minority businesses through its national office in Washington, D.C. and seven regional chapters. 
Prior to taking this position in 2001 she was a law partner with Paul sheerman, Allen and associates focusing on international trade and investments. 
Maggie Elehwany, Vice President of government affairs and policy, national rural health association. 
Her legislative experience includes serving as health counsel to Lisa mukowskiy and to Senator frank mukowsky where she worked on Medicare and Medicaid legislation and she served as Director of affairs for the American Medical Association. 
To Maggie's left is Brian Fontes. 
Brian currently serves as chief executive officer of national emergency number association, NENA, where he is responsible for all aspects of the organizations, including objectives for Americans have a reliable 911 service and they have well trained professionals and sufficient funding is available so 911 systems can best serve those who call on them. 
He was a Senior Vice President for policy administration in the telecommunications industry association. 
Senior advisor of James H.coelho and to Brian's left is Ron Johnson. 
Ron advises minority businesses and historically black colleges and universities on IT and broadband having held many appointed positions on state government on rural land issues and is currently in the commission Commissioner Johnson is also a policy advisor for minority Meadian telecom council on broadband infrastructure and minority business. 
To Ron's left is Matthew chase. 
Matthew serves as executive Director of the National Association of development organizations, and the NATO research foundation, organizations that promote regional strategies, partnerships and solutions to promote local competitiveness. 
NADO represents the national network of 5 hundred regional planning development organizations. 
To Matthew's left is sandy Rosenblith, Senior Vice President of the local initiatives support corporation LISC and Director of the national rural program where she founded and has managed the national rural and midsouth Delta programs. 
She has delivered training and political assistance and has underwritten half a billion Dallas. 
To sandy's left is Debbie Goldman, the policy Director at communications workers of America where she is responsible for regulatory affairs and telecommunications policy. 
She currently coordinates the union "speed matters" campaign promoting affordable high speed internet for America. 
And last but certainly not least is betty Manetta, founder and president of Argent associates a minority women-owned business in New Jersey, where I come from, too. 
Providing supply chain services IT products and services and distributor of technology. 
She has 12 years background in AT&T, Lucent technologies and a basssters from Rutgers and masters from seat ton hall. 
So as I have mentioned earlier roundtables, NTIA and RUS is are trying to accomplish a huge task in a short period of time. 
They have to implement the ARRA, The American recovery and reinvestment act in a way that produces the greatest broadband bang for every taxpayer buck. 
They need to adopt rules, solicit proposals, review proposals, select the best proposals that satisfy the statute and award criteria and numerous unending number of tasks. 
So the purpose of these roundtables is to provide NTIA and RUS with the thoughts and suggestions of experienced experts such as those we have on the panel today, so they can accomplish their task as quickly and effectively as possible. 
The topic is community economic development. 
The purpose of the ARRA is jobs, economic development, and community economic development mandates and directives are scattered throughout the ARRA generally and throughout the broadband stimulus portion of the act. 
So I think the best thing for us to do would be to begin our discussion and provide the NTIA and RUS with good ideas about how we promote community economic development through the broadband stimulus program. 
Our first speaker, sue Au Allen from the U.S. pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce. 
MS. ALLEN:  Thank you very much. 
I am Susan Au Allen the national president and CEO of the U.S. pan Asian American chamber of commerce. 
My role is to talk about from the business perspective on ways to ensure that the broadband technology programs will truly promote community economic development. 
The current marketplace shows that the information superhighway has been a mammoth undertaking, a major telecommunications and media players have been making major investments in this field; however, the current landscape of this technological undertaking has shown in deepest uneven broadband technology in areas versus pockets of underserved or unserved areas with low or nonexisting usage of broadband technology. 
The challenges we have today is that it is competitors, consumers are finding it difficult to choose a broadband service that best suits their needs. 
This problem is directly tied to the marketplace objective comprehensive information about broadband. 
Rural and underserved areas do not have access to broadband technology because of cost, lack of proper infrastructure, underground type or cell phone towers, an emersion of broadband access and justified demand for this service. 
Cable and telephone upgrades are proceeding at various speeds depending on the company. 
Service providers must iron out any number of issues before they can provide bug-free services and broadband technology provides a good marketing subscriber acquisition, retention and customer service support to gain mass acceptance. 
However, this technology and what we are doing today, for the last week will provide good business opportunities for Americans throughout the country. 
A small business in underserved areas could easily link up to key urban centers using broadband technology for growth opportunities. 
For example, create project contract database for a local government for any business to access and to bid on potential contract opportunities. 
Local communities could be linked to a larger network in key urban centers using broadband technology. 
For example, they could improve healthcare delivery by linking clinics with big city hospitals through telemedicine and improve schools and libraries by connecting with urban centers, IT and other service providers could also develop sustainable network. 
Small and medium-sized enterprises which we represent and serve in underserved areas could partner with large corporations such as some of our corporate supporters and members to establish wireless pipelines by satellite-based and terrestrial companies and licensing is an expensive proposition for the proper infrastructure and proper relationship, it could be done. 
Finally we could make broadband utilization more attractive to consumers, particularly in geographically isolated regions by using organizations such as the U.S. pan Asian communications network that can provide outreach, awareness, education and training in these agencies must clearly define, identify and standardize concepts. 
For example, what does underserved area mean? 
To what degree should one community be described versus another in terms of usage, in terms of availability of infrastructure or demand for broadband technology, etc., etc. 
We could create a clearly defined method system to clearly show the pockets or areas of broadband usage. 
Underusage in key urban centers and targeted areas. 
We could create a clear benchmark in different places. 
Fast track within two years, medium track in five years, and so on, to help to ensure and organize a systemic process implementation. 
We can create liaison between local providers and government communities that create an outreach areas for this area, remember, there is a lack of demand, lack of education, lack of knowledge within the underserved, unserved or rural areas on what broadband could do for them to improve their quality of their lives. 
And this is key to the real success of this program. 
We could enlist the help of organizations like us and those on this panel to help identify issues, solutions, opportunities to help unserved, underserved and rural communities to accept these technologies, finally we can ensure that there is transparency and responsibility in this program. 
Essential for the ultimate success of this program. 
What are the prospects and outlook? 
Broadband technology is not a penetration prospect, especially with the Obama administration's fast track program through the stimulus bill. 
Going forward, broadband technology is expected to become a commodity like water and electricity. 
To quote a former chairman and CEO of logic corporation broadband technology represents the mother mother of all business opportunities and I look forward to hearing more from you and working with you to make this a major success for America. 
Thank you. 
MODERATOR: Our next speaker will be Maggie Elehwany. 
National rural health association. 
MS. ELEHWANY:  I am with the national rural health association. 
I appreciate this opportunity to be here. 
I just want to talk about very briefly the importance of the broadband position in the stimulus bill to delivery of help here in rural America. 
Bottom line the mission of the rural health association is to improve the health of the 62 million Americans who live in rural America, expanding broadband is a critical way to do that. 
Very briefly, I would like to outline a couple things to you. 
First of all, the difficulties in the delivery of healthcare in rural America, how critical to that economy that delivery of healthcare is, not only to the patient but also the local economy in rural America and the importance of this broadband expansion. 
First of all what we are talking about is a quarter of a population that calls rural America home. 
That is 25% of people scattered over 90% of the land mass in this country. 
Geographic barriers, cultural barriers, social barriers all mean that it's more difficult to deliver healthcare in these rural areas but often rural patients face some of the most daunting healthcare challenges. 
Was that my buzzer to end, sorry. 
Often perpendicular capita, people are older, we have a higher Medicare population per capita, and they have chronic disease, diabetes is higher in chronic America, and mortality rates of children is 20% higher in rural America. 
The other thing I would like to point out is the tremendous shortage of workforce in America. 
The overriding problem that faces rural Americans is access to healthcare. 
We often talk about how important it is to expand health insurance coverage and it's true it is a necessary and laudable thing to achieve and is critical in rural America as workforce jobs are being loss in rural areas at a higher rate than urban areas so you get higher uninsured rates in rural America, yet it doesn't matter what kind of health insurance coverage you have if you cannot access a physician. 
That's where an investment in broadband and telemedicine can do so much for the delivery of healthcare in rural America. 
I want to talk a little bit more about the healthcare and the economy. 
Over the last decade, while they lost -- last year the manufacturing industry lost 310 thousand jobs but the healthcare industry gained 363 thousand jobs. 
Rural manufacturing jobs declined at double the rate in rural areas than in urban areas. 
But the one bright spot, actually two bright spots is the healthcare industry in rural America and also the education industry in rural America. 
If you have a robust healthcare economy and a robust education economy in an area, that will attract other businesses. 
People who relocate to an area if they have a place where their children can attend schools and they have a place where they can get quality healthcare delivered to them. 
Now the important thing also about this is that a rural hospital in an area can mean as much as 20% of the local economy. 
If you put one physician and place him in a rural area that can equate as to as many as 23 other ancillary jobs. 
It's something that really keeps the economy going. 
Yet we have such a hard time recruiting and retaining physicians in rural areas. 
That's where broadband can do so much. 
Not only will it help transform healthcare by uniting small rural facilities to larger urban areas. 
So much can be done in radiology in transferring CAT scans and so much is being done in rural areas in telepsychology. 
It opens up a whole new world that would allowed a few rural providers to be located in a rural area and maintain the economy in that area. 
It actual helps recruit and retain physicians to a rural area because if they do feel a connection with a more urban area they gain a sense of collegiality. 
So I want to say how important the positions are in the rural investment act and we would strongly support them. 
It's absolutely very critical for the delivery of healthcare in rural areas and really can transform things much as president Eisenhower had the fore sight to develop the interstate highway systems, we saw the decline of towns that were not located on the highway system. 
That's the way our generation needs to look at the broadband capabilities in rural America. 
It is absolutely critical for the healthcare of everyone who lives in rural America. 
Thank you. 
MODERATOR: We will next hear from Brian Fontes from the national emergency number association. 
MR. FONTES:  I am grateful to be here today. 
I am representing a number of public safety organizations including fire chiefs, chief police chiefs, the medical organizations, the state association of 911 administrators, the public safety broadband trust, and national emergency number association. 
Earlier today I had an opportunity to speak on a panel similar to this dealing with the issue of economic development. 
So it's nice to have both panels in the same day. 
It's clear that in the development of communities, the ability to provide emergency services is key to economic development in that area. 
The previous panel Dick Mirgon, representing the association of public safety officials reaffirmed what I just said is that the importance of economic development is important, particularly if there is in fact the availability of public safety services. 
Now in today's age, modern emergency response demands the integrated information and this integrated information is laden with rich amounts of information and following on what Maggie just said, particularly in rural areas, the opportunity in the broadband world to receive information to work with medical care facilities and hospitals in an urban environment or having that information delivered in a rural environment and pushed through to first responders in having a vast array of information available and to be able to take information from that location and transfer back to either the rural healthcare facility or urban or suburban healthcare facility certainly benefits individuals. 
Also the opportunity to provide information regarding structures and other types of environments where damage may occur either a fire or tornadoes or other means, the ability to have blue prints and the composition of the structures also help in aiding and responding to the emergency situation. 
Broadband simply provides better safety and greater efficiencies. 
At an earlier panel today someone said doesn't efficiencies really stand as a euphemism for losing jobs? 
I Chuckled at that because it's not quite the case. 
Efficiencies in this situation may allow for greater amounts of services for the same or more individuals. 
In rural America you may be able to have now individuals who reside in remote areas connected to broadband capabilities that would be able to work for emergency response centers or emergency communication centers without having to be tethered to a brick and mortar structure. 
And these individuals may be able to handle a vast amount of information available in a data rich broadband environment. 
So location is no longer criteria to provide the services that are essential. 
And certainly if you are taking a look at the ability to provide greater capabilities in a broadband environment in rural areas is making that community more attractive for others to invest. 
If you are looking at businesses being drawn to a community, they are going to take a look at the community's infrastructure. 
The schools, hospitals, care facilities, as well as public safety services that are available and the communications that will improve that public safety service's ability to serve that communications. 
Now, we did a recent survey and we found out that probably around 50% of the emergency communications centers out there across America have a capability or have broadband connectivity. 
Now, if you drive down a little bit deeper and ask how many of you are utilizing that broadband network in order to perform your services better, the answer is less than 50%. 
In large part in going through the programs that RUS and NTIA are engaged in is requirementses to help provide the training and education necessary and associated with using these broadband networks. 
And finally I would just like to say that what we are asking for in public safety is not necessarily unique in terms of building its own network. 
There are opportunities where public safety may be able to ride others networks or a network of networks. 
We are taking a look at the possibilities of working together with what other government agencies are designing for public safety. 
For example, the FCC has under consideration an allocation called the D-block or commercial safety interest network and that should dove tail or have the opportunity to dove tail and opportunities are being made available by NTIA and RUS. 
So I hope as we take a look at the important issue of providing broadband services to underserved and unserved areas we factor into that equation the critical fundamental building block to economic development of communities in rural areas and across America, the ability to connect our public safety services to broadband capabilities, that we may be able to derive benefits and efficiencies across America and some day in an urban environment do enjoy. 
I will step down at this point and hopefully we will have Q and A later on. 
Thank you very much. 
MODERATOR: Thank you, Brian. 
And now we will hear from Ronald Johnson. 
MR. JOHNSON:  Thanks, Bob and to all the other presenters. 
It's good to be here today. 
And we are grateful that we have been invited again to the minority and media telecommunications council to participate on this panel as we have on three previous panels on other days. 
To talk about the extremely important broadband programs with NTIA and RUS. 
Obviously creating new jobs and sustaining existing jobs in broadband combine with the inclusion of many new and promising entrants to the industry is certainly challenging for all of us, yet at the same time it's a very exciting and exhilarating moment for small and disadvantaged businesses across our country. 
The broadband stimulus initiative offers the opportunity to create new and bold paradigms of cooperation between stakeholders across the service spectrum, from IT, and construction to, EM's and bars, certainly let's not forget the procurement specialty contractors who will assist the agencies with the enormous task of ensuring accountability and transparency across all functions of the federal government as we try to roll out these very important programs because we all know that government cannot do this alone. 
It will need the support of private industry. 
And so very brief many, I want to share with you some perspectives on how small disadvantage businesses particularly in the SBA 8 A program can benefit from business expansion and broadband, and how these firms can work and support grant applicants as partners and sometimes as friendly competitors in our various communities, and in our rural and urban communities across the country. 
The broadband stimulus and economic development idea as it relates to small and disadvantaged businesses we consider an enabling opportunity for these companies and for applicants who will be applying for grants and loans. 
The statutory requirements for SDB involvement is found at ARRA section 6001 H 3 and I am sure all of you are familiar with that language but in short it says NTIA in awarding grants through this section shall to the extent practical consider when the applicant is socially or economic disadvantaged small business concern as defined under section 8 A of the small business act found at 15 U.S.C.37. 
What point can disadvantaged small businesses bring to the table as we roll out these programs for our rural areas. 
The purpose of the small business 8 A program is to develop small and disadvantaged businesses and by extension create many new jobs, sustain existing jobs and create economic growth in local communities across the country. 
There obviously is a great benefit of the 8 A program for broadband deployment as these companies begin to serve as enablers to those who will not only be applying for grants and loans but to government agencies as well. 
First of all the 8 A program encourages partnerships. 
And these companies do this exceedingly well. 
These companies have access to unserved and underserved communities and to those entities in particular that supports them. 
Because in so many instances across our country these companies are located in unserved and underserved areas. 
And also these companies can through their involvement now with the digital divide among telecom companies and exist with removing barriers that many companies face. 
So this would be a new opportunity for these companies to participate in areas where heretofore they have not been able to participate to the extent that I know carriers and other providers would want them to do. 
It also helps the telecom industry to meet on the growing requirements not only from the stimulus money from NTIA and RUS but also with their own inten corporate funding, these companies can provide another avenue, another source of support for these companies. 
There is also a specific advantage, I think, at least in my mind, for companies who would be applying for grants and loans. 
First of all the 8-A firms across the country are already served by SBA as to their business status. 
To their experience, to their financial capability, to the eligibility for government contracts. 
They are also experienced with federal procurement regulations. 
It's a part of the program that they be knowledgeable in this area. 
And they have a long history of meeting stringent federal guidelines which NTIA and RUS will place on grant applicants. 
They also provide a larger link to targeted communities and many applicants and they will augment existing relationships in various communities throughout the country. 
Also 8 A participants are supported by the federal government they are supported by the office of small and disadvantaged business utilizations in all federal agencies and also as the Department of Commerce's own minority agency. 
These have supported and by statute support disadvantaged small businesses, not only 8 A firms but all small disadvantaged small businesses. 
And these 8 A firms will have an important impact in unserved and underserved areas where most of the applicants hopefully will come from. They will promote the hiring of minority groups which as we all know have a higher unemployment rate in these targeted areas in these communities. 
They will also stimulate the creation of job training programs, to raise unemployment and provide job sustainability levels. 
In many of these communities that applicants will be residing in, clearly there will be a need to retrain and train individuals from these communities to provide support for these various jobs that will now become available. 
Physicians heretofore that they might have been excluded from full participation. 
And also by involving the aging firms in this process, I think you will create a sense of community ownership on behalf of these companies as they participate in the buildout process and by extension there will be an increased use on broadband services and products in these communities in the furtherance of educational and healthcare programs and the like. 
And finally the 8 A programs to be successful there has to be a tremendous level of accountability. 
You have to ensure these companies will get an unfettered opportunity to participate in this programs, and I believe Congress is committed to it and the federal government agencies are committed to it in promulgating this legislation so we are excited about this in all 8 A and small businesses look forward to this enabling act will provide. 
I look forward to your questions. 
Thank you. 
MODERATOR: Thank you, Ron. 
Our next speaker is Matthew chase National Association of development organizations. 
MR. CHASE:  Good afternoon. 
My name is Matt chase I am with the National Association of development organizations which represent as network of 520 regional planning and development organizations which are governed and operated by local elected officials and we are focused on economic development in stressed and underserved areas of the country. 
Our philosophy is that broadband is an essential building block for regional economic competitive in small and rural areas and that is why members that are funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce can identify policy rules and projects as part of their comprehensive economic development strategies. 
We are supportive of the ARRA language that recognizes the importance of targeting funds to distressed areas serve bide the economic development administration's local delivery system. 
Our priorities are pretty straight forward as related to USDA funds. 
In small towns and areas there are challenges from a business perspective and economic development competitiveness perspective that we need to address. 
Those include redundancy of service for reliability. 
A company or firm will not locate into a rural area if they do not have repetitive services. 
They need flexible band width to meet shifting demands and loads when it's a call center or engineering firm, some sort of corporation or a government installation. 
And we need Tom focus on public -- we need to focus on public private partnerships with new players as well as players such as public and nonprofits and other entities if we are going to build broadband networks in underserved areas we are focused on the economic sustainability of these assets that we don't want to build as part of the stimulus and in two or three years look at these investments and say how are we going to maintain them and continue to operate them? 
We also believe that the broadband deployment in unserved and underserved areas complements President Obama's 2010 budget priorities where he is launching a regional cluster initiative as well as establish a goal of a national network of public and private business incue baiters, and broadband will be essential to these incue baiters. 
A great example is Alfred university in up state New York has an electronic program that partners with a Japanese company that gave Alfred 10 million dollars to establish this partnership. 
It's a small liberal arts college that is partnering with a Japanese company and they need incredible band width to be able to do this. 
And we recognize that the ARRA broadband funds are focused on economic development that is ready to go. 
Our members have identified numerous projects that are not only important for job creation but more importantly job retention which, is what we are really striving for in the current climate. 
And if you look at these examples of products that are ready -- project that is are ready to go, they focus on partnerships, focus on aggregating demand in unserved and under served areas and they focus on strategic investments that will last over time. 
So we don't need, as I said earlier just for the short-term, we need these investments for the long-term national competitiveness. 
So with that I want to close by stressing that we would like to see these funds focus on building out broadband back bone networks to assist with local providers and users and we want to make sure that the redundancy to allow, redundancy to allow major institutions to drive. 
And we want to make sure that the systems have flexibility to meet the end needs and we would like to see a lot of attention to aggregating demand to ensure they are sustainable. 
Thank you very much. 
MS. ROSENBLITH:  Good afternoon. 
I am glad to be here, but I want to tell you right at the outset that I am a broadband ignore ramous. 
What I know something about is community economic development. 
So I have approached my remarks from the standpoint that if I were about to invest all of the money that you are talking about investing, how would I do it in such a way as to maximize the community economic development that occurred due to that investment. 
First off, obviously, everything that Matt said, we pretty much agree with, and that includes the fact that communities with broadband are far more likely to develop. 
But the concern that I have in part about this is, the yin and yang much long-term versus short-term benefit. 
Because long-term, to achieve community economic development in many of the communities across a very diverse rural America, this is going to be a patient process, and it takes a lot of time, and as the people at USDA know, since they have an active rural development program, you know, this is not something you can achieve overnight. 
Secondly, it involves people, people are absolutely key to the outcome. 
So trying to figure out from statistics or a list of criteria that are paper criteria, which communities will succeed and produce development using the broadband investment and which won't would be very very difficult to do. 
I realize it's hard to get across rural America but it's also very important to find a way to assess the leadership and support in each individual community. 
Secondly, they can't do it themselves. 
I have worked in the south bronx, and I have worked in Miami after the 1980 Mcdid you havy riots and now I work in rural America. 
And I can tell you that in each case there has been a tremendous situation where a crisis has occurred and that crisis has lasted for a considerable period of time. 
So what you are looking at, though, is a process that perhaps is a decade long. 
And it's not even going to start if the people who live in these communities cannot imagine or envision or understand what broadband can do for them, and more broadly, what development and what it can do. 
So I believe there is a real need to bring in partners, not just from an economic viewpoint, but partners who are going to be there to build the capacity of local institutions, both in the broadband arena but broader arena of development. 
There are programs within the federal government that address this. 
I would urge you to involve them as partners. 
And also to look to the private sector. 
I am here representing a private sector organization, a foundation. 
And I think there will be considerable interest in partnering with you and bringing that longer-term sort of the softer side perspective to the table. 
Thank you. 
MODERATOR: Our next speaker is Debbie Goldman from the telecommunications workers of America. 
MS. GOLDMAN:  I want to thank the staff at NTIA and RUS for your work putting together these illuminating roundtables, now number 6. 
I want to commend Bob Atkinson. 
You have been a moderator extraordinaire. 
I have watched most of these panels and it has been exciting how so many people from so many walks of life want to be a part of the mission, and I call it a mission of bringing broadband access to every home and every community in America. 
But we know the NTIA and RUS grant making authority is limited to 7.2 billion dollars. 
That's not peanuts, but neither will it solve every problem that we have raised over the past six days or six sessions. 
So as NTIA and RUS prioritize, you must focus on the goals that are outlined in the ARRA act. 
And in the broadband opportunities and technology program. 
And if you read the statute, it focuses on three. 
To create jobs, to stimulate the economy and to invest in America's long-term competitiveness. 
So we need to focus on those goals. 
Congress made clear that the stimulus dollars should be used not just to create quantities of jobs or to retain quantities of jobs but to create good jobs here in America. 
Jobs that pay enough to support a family. 
And in section 1606 of the statute, Congress mandated that all construction and infrastructure jobs supported through the stimulus funds must pay the prevailing wage. 
In section 1605, Congress mandated that buy America provisions apply to all materials and manufactured goods used in stimulus construction, operation or maintenance of repair projects these are important provisions that will help rebuild the middle class in this country. 
We know broadband creates jobs. 
During the debate over the act, Congress agreed with CWA's analysis that every billion dollars invested in broadband creates about 20 thousand jobs. 
If you do the math, 7.2 billion should result in 140 thousand jobs created or retained. 
These are counted in three-ways, direct jobs from the project itself, indirect jobs from the workers and their families who go out and get their haircut and go to restaurants and buy movie tickets, et cetera. And then the induced jobs that result from the new services, applications and equipment developed to take advantage of the broadband networks. 
So I am going to focus in my view remarks here on benchmarks. 
How do you measure job creation. 
Because what is measured is going to drive priorities in selecting from the many, many, many deserving projects that would be applying for grant money. 
So what should the NTIA and RUS put in their benchmarks? 
Fortunately they don't have to start from scratch. 
As you already heard there are other federal agencies in fact in the same departments where the NTIA and RUS are located, the Department of Commerce's economic development administration, the Department of Agriculture's rural development administration -- just to name two, and there are undoubtedly others that have decades of experience in this area. 
Those agencies require departments to report the number of jobs from the grant. 
They have two kinds of jobs, the jobs from construction, the engineers planning the project, technicians and construction crews building infrastructure, and then the jobs created during on-going operations. 
In other words, sustainability. 
The technicians employed to operate and maintain the grant-funded networks and equipment and don't forget the customer service personnel handling the sales, service and repair costs. 
For non-infrastructure projects of which this program looks at broadband adoption and most of those will be non-infrastructure projects or may overlap with infrastructure projects the key metric is the number of people employed for the project. 
Digital literacy, how many people will be hired to go out to the libraries and communities centers to actual train people. 
And I would add for these broadband projects there should be a special metric so there can be reporting of the number of individuals engaged in job training or some kind of education program that actually upgrades their skills and their ability to either move from unemployment to employment or up to upgrading their job skills. 
Now once the agencies I have mentioned get the number of Director jobs created for the funded projects they then run those numbers through a reputable input output model which can calculate based on where the location is and the kind of infrastructure it is or what kind of service it is, if it's a wireless tower, if it's network, cell site, if it's a wire line FBIer to the home, if it's a cable program. 
Based on those kinds of industry and locational information, you run this through your input/output model and that will have a multiplier that will show the number of indirect induced jobs created and from this you can translate it into economic impact, the impact of gross domestic product, et cetera. 
So the first metric is the number of jobs. 
But we need to pay attention as the statute indicated to us not just on the quantity of jobs but also on the quality of jobs. 
And I would stress in the telecom industry particularly this has been an industry which has traditionally been characterizes by good, secure -- let me rephrase that -- by good skill career jobs. 
Often because the union is there to ensure that the benefits that the productivity of the skilled workforce accrue to all those who participated. 
So we need the NTIA and RUS also to include other metrics. 
In addition to the number of equivalents we want to know the job titles and the number of full time equivalents in each of those job titles and we want to know the average age and total comp benefits for each job title and we want the union status of those jobs. 
So there are four key metrics that have to be focused on. 
You heard already that there are other kinds of job creation that go ahead into building up broadband networks and I think NTIA and RUS needs to explore methodologies that are used to measure job impact of broadband facilities that have been move to locations such as parks, government and private institutions and small businesses that we will be able to be more productive and to grow. 
Now when do we get these data? 
First at the time of application, the NTIA and RUS must validate the job forecast using first what I would call a smell test, is it realistic and then there are statistical models to be sure the broadcast is in the right product and awards will be made based on the job creation potential. 
There will be different structures for jobs. 
Once grants are awarded the grantees should report the employment data in their quarterly reports as I mentioned for infrastructure products grantedees should be required to report in the outyears. 
We want to know that we are building infrastructure that is sustainable. 
I have listened over the past six days and there has been a lot of advice that we need to make sure that we don't just fund a project in an area that has been high cost and hard to serve, and then he can build something with the grant money but then they can't sustain it. 
And it's my understanding that the economic development corporation is reporting three, six, and nine years out because it could be that long to recognize the benefits for a community. 
Finally as we heard this morning the agencies must set up enforcement and accountability procedures. 
Monitoring the accuracy of reported by America and other federal statutes is a priority for program officers and auditors. 
Other federal programs from head start to Medicare to the workforce investment act require companies from taking federal funds for using those funds in any way to interfere with employees' rights on the job. 
Particularly with their right to organize and form a union. 
NTIA and RUS should set up a complaint adjudication procedure to resolve complaints. 
In closing I want to wish the NTIA and RUS good luck as we move forward. 
Your task is large the expectations are great. 
Not only to solve our multiple broadband gaps but based on what I have heard to bring world peace and global prosperity as well. 
MODERATOR: Thank you. 
We are definitely for peace and prosperity betty man netta is next. 
MS. MANETTA:  Everybody has pretty much said all that I have on my slide so it will make my talk shorter. 
A lot of our speakers talked about one of the statistics is by the year 201280% of the consumers are going to be outside of the United States, so how do small business, Argent and I represent thousands of small minority women-owned businesses throughout this country that as somebody said earlier in the previous panel, we are the growth engine of this economy. 
So what do we need in order for us to continue to be be move forward without stimulus packages or anything else like that? 
We do it on our own. 
A couple of things. 
Knowing that globalization is important, specialized knowledge and skills that we talked about early is going to be critical. 
We need band width to do that. Video communications, we talked about that earlier, telemedicine, teleclassrooms. 
E-books, courtroom video conferencing, quality control, video quality control, where you can watch your assembly line maybe overseas virtually from your office in New York. 
Security that we talked about, it's paramount, so all these things are what's going to drive broadband, not only in rural areas but every where. 
The interactive entertainment is something that is growing phenomenonly. 
Classrooms challenging each other from an educational perspective or just for entertainment. 
Faster is the new fast. 
Right now technology, you know, can't take years it has to take months and pretty soon probably weeks to do it. 
So what kind of stimulus package do for broadband? 
As we talked about and Debbie brought it up, there is existing jobs that broadband will help to grow and there is new jobs, new industries that we can apply it to. 
So let's look at the existing industries that will help us grow. 
We talked about engineering, installation, systems integration is going to be key for doing a lot of this, warehousing, logistics, how do I get the projects to different places, stage it and ship it to the installation sites. 
The cabling, you have copper, fiber cable, the characterization of existing cable that may be laying in areas that haven't been lit yet. 
So you are going to have to have some of that technology. 
Then you have web technology. 
You have the aftermarket. 
So when the product comes back damaged there is refurbishing, recycling, repairing. 
The call centers, tech support. 
And the call centers is one that's going to be looked at closely because while we out-source a lot of call centers a lot of AT&T and Verizon are repatriating these centers back. 
Call centers are going to be important for our veterans coming back from Iraq. 
It will be paraMount for them who can't travel and go to work outside their homes. 
So the call centers, the construction we talked about, and the construction is going to start generating new industries, right? 
Because there is an idling initiative, so a lot of these vehicles can't idle. 
So when you have to use bucket trucks or need to idle your vehicle, auxiliary products will be key. 
But what about new APU's, utilizing natural gas and compressed air. 
So a lot of new technology, new innovation that is going to be critical that will help stimulate our economy we have to change the way we live, right? 
We talked about the digital divide. 
How do we get kids out there more motivated to work and learn, so the digital divide will help them. 
The E-training. 
I think an earlier panel talked about that in a lot of the reservations and Alaskian reservations up in Alaska, these are going to be key to our success and to their success. 
And we talked again about small businesses but here's more stats. 
The number of jobs that we generate. 
Again, the small is going to be the new R and D small businesses are very nimble. 
We can create new technologies and so a lot of companies will be looking for us to help them in this initiative. 
So lastly what is the broadband stimulus package must-have's? 
I think there is something that Debbie has said she talked about, portfolio of participants are going to be key. 
We need to make sure that we engage small, medium, large corporations as well as domestic companies and foreign. 
We have to look at foreign because that's the way it is. 
And that keeps us very competitive. 
But we can't forget our own. 
We have to be able to manufacture and get back to creating new technologies. 
Small minority participation. 
I know there are some languages in there. 
We got to make sure we are doing what we say we are going to do. 
Firms should be tapping into local schools and youth because they will be the engines for tomorrow. 
How do we get them engaged in technology and jobs that are going to be growing and not idling. 
We want to make sure we are engaging them in the next generation of jobs. 
Encouraging employment, right? 
We out-source a lot of things we have to look at how do we do it better, faster with our own people? 
Encourage U.S. based technology for inknow separation. 
The universities are great -- innovation. 
The universities are great incue baiters for creating new things. 
So the most important thing is metrics to Betty's point, too. 
| what are the metrics to success? 
Because if you don't know where you are going any road will get you there. 
So you got to be careful that you pave the road, that it's not gravel or dirt, those will take a long time to get to. 
It can be lethal. 
Let's make sure we have clear vision and path and that we execute flawlessly and swiftly. 
Thank you very much. 
MODERATOR: We went a little over time. 
I am exhausted to be honest. 
And I'm not sure how much of a roundtable I'm going to be able to do. 
How many questioners do we have from the audience? 
Why don't we get up? 
We will make this a big roundtable discussion. 
I will try to end the program on time. 
One of the things I would suggest, and also at NTIA, a colleague of mine, at CITI Ronald KATZ did a study, an econometric study about the impact. 
He in addition to estimating 136,000 new jobs he also raised the question about whether broadband could also lose jobs. 
When we talk about productivity enhancement or productivity, that is often a euphemism for lost jobs. 
So there is a thought that broadband will create a lot of productivity and if we lose jobs, it's not that we shouldn't do it but we have to be careful. 
I think we even heard there is out-sourcing and maybe jobs will come back from traditional out-sourcing but broadband makes it easy to be a part of the local economy and which way the jobs go, hard to predict, hard to automatically know. 
But it's a caution. 
Does anybody here on the panel give much thought to the downsides of broadband stimulus? 
The possibility? 
MS. GOLDMAN:  Bob, I think you are asking a question that really gets at what are our labor market policies in the country that are broader than the issues related to the stimulus. 
Because whether -- broadband does mean that location is less relevant, but what that means in terms of how we structure our labor markets is very different. 
MODERATOR: Matthew? 
MR. CHASE:  I would say there is potential to lose jobs, but fur talking about underserved and unserved areas, broadband is essential. 
You can't pursue an innovation economy and attract knowledgeable workers unless you have access to broadband. 
So we are talking about areas that currently don't have the luxury of having high speed internet access. 
So they are not even to the point where they can worry about losing jobs, they are falling so far behind. 
I gave the example of Alfred university isn't a small town of upstate New York. 
Citizens are facing serious job out-sourcing. 
They need incredible band width and they can't do that with dial-up. 
Those communities are not worried about losing jobs because there is no way to compete without that fundamental building block. 
MODERATOR: I have one more quick question. 
I heard we get benefits out of telehealth, teleeducation, new jobs, lower costs for healthcare. 
You know, new jobs coming into the town, tax increases. 
All of these things that you talk about broadly as economic development. 
Why can't you get together and everybody chip in a little bit of money and get this job done, because if you save some healthcare costs and save some education costs you generate new taxes for new jobs, etc., etc., etc., doesn't that pay for infrastructure? 
Is it just a matter of coordination and aggregating demand in a sense? 
MR. CHASE:  I can -- MODERATOR: I heard aggregating demand. 
MR. CHASE:  In the rural areas first thing you need is expertise. 
Our members that are pursuing buildout of broadband networks are using retired or former employees of Verizon and AT&T, level 3, people with indepth knowledge of this industry because if you are a mayor or county Commissioner you can understand setting a policy goal of trying to establish broadband service but you certainly are not going to understand the terminology in the industry. 
So these rural areas need technical capacity first. 
Then can you start addressing these other issues. 
MODERATOR: Maggie? 
You want to say something. 
MS. ELEHWANY:  For healthcare it is prohibitively expensive. 
Many small hospitals known as critical access hospitals, rural health clinics, community health centers really operate on such a small margin, collaboration does sound wonderful, it would be great. Purchasing equipment to adopt president Obama's goal of having 70% of healthcare facilities have electronic medical records is going to be challenging alone let alone the development of the infrastructure itself. 
MS. ROSENBLITH:  I wanted to add to that that it's very difficult in the context, what you were talking about with everybody chipping in and moving ahead and changing themselves all at once, and it's a very difficult process, particularly when you have a few people in a community, who tend to be the civic leaders involved in many, many of the activities, but on the real side, you know, we have worked with organizations that can't file their grant applications under the federal grants dot Govern because they time out on their dial-up systems. 
So we were not even in the ballpark when it comes to a lot of these communities. 
And if you are going to have a doctor, because there is broadband you also are going to have to provide that doctor with as we talked, the schools, the housing that they want, the kinds of other amenities that they feel. 
It's not a process where you can just do it all at once. 
MODERATOR: Let me go to the audience. 
I have asked each questioner to first indicate whether you are going to ask a question or make a comment. 
Identify yourself and also any affiliation that is relevant. 
Try to stick with the clock. 
We will allocate a minute for a question or comment and so everyone would get their comment in. 
Microphone number 1? 
>>  Thank you, Harry AlFord CEO national black Chamber of Commerce. 
I polled the national -- question by the way. 
I polled the national conference of black mayors last week on the stimulus bill and on this broadband initiative and most of it were totally afraid of it, ignorant of it, most of them have non-entitlement towns in the southeast part of the United States, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, et cetera. 
They don't have broadband and they don't have business development and they are not going to survive unless they have business development and they must have broadband. 
They can't retain their own talent that is growing up in their cities and towns getting educated and they have to go to a bigger place to do their business skills. 
So, is it in the realm of possibility that we get an 8 A firm, get a local government town, such as one of these, and couple that with a local black chamber, and maybe a telecommunications company and find a grant writer which they don't have, is it in the realm of possibility that they can compete? 
MODERATOR: I would say yes. 
Let's hear from a rural expert. 
MS. GOLDMAN:  I was going to say yes also and scaling up these projects for grant proposals have many advantages including that it is going to be easier for the grant making institutions to look at a grant proposal that has a scale to it. 
And as I hear from you, I have heard also from black mayors. 
Tremendous interest in bringing not just the networks but the affordability issue to their communities. 
And I think there is a lot of energy and excitement and putting that all together in the coupling that you talked about. 
MR. JOHNSON:  I think the good news is and you certainly would be very much aware of this is that a lot of 8 A firms in the local areas, particularly the rural areas have relationships with the black mayors, on going relationships not only with them but other individuals in the community. 
So I would suggest that we find a way to get the 8 A firms in these communities in connection with these black mayors and talk about ways that they can work together. 
It's an opportunity for the mayors in the cities but also an opportunity for the companies as well. 
So I think there is a lot of synergy to be had. 
MODERATOR: Perhaps I can ask you to, if you are talking to the mayors recently, get them organized. 
>>  Yes, we plan on convening and meeting with the mayor of Greenbelt, Mississippi who is the president of the national conference of black mayors and another organization, the world conference of mayors, Johnny Ford in tuskegee, Alabama, but we will convene and use these two cities as models, hopefully for others to emulate. 
MODERATOR: I am sure it will be an interesting project. 
>>  My name is gonzolo Perez. 
I wear many hats and all the hats I wear have a mutual interest specifically representing minorities and disadvantaged students I am a board of education member in New Jersey, I am out of New Jersey and my job is to it grant policy the town I live in is 70% Latino, that's where I grew up and studied. 
The second hat I wear is I work in a higher educational institution and we invite local inner city high schools in Patterson city, and we motivate them and talk about engineering technology and as the last panel has spoke about, getting the high schools universities efforts. 
The last hat I wear is the organization called LISTA Latino information sciences and technology association and we are a network of 35 hundred Latinos that empower our community through broadband and infrastructure efforts. 
The biggest thing we have is the list of technocenter where the community comes into the center and we train them on critical skills for job hunting and also to get their citizenship and also to kind of keen their skills. 
So the last point I want to make is work in the future with health info mattics. 
We feel the AMIA is an organization that 10 thousand people have been trained by 2010 to be helping info mattics and stimulate small business growth in that regard. 
MODERATOR: Thank you. 
Microphone number 3? 
>>  I am Harry rush of the Appalachian regional commission. 
Our agency has funded millions of dollars of strategic planning and aggregation of demand. 
That is one way in which communities can organize themselves together to bring about broadband. 
I can tell you that a hospital or hospital network is probably number one or number two employer in a rural county. 
And we have 42% of our counties are definitely way above the national average. 
When it comes to governments, there wasn't much talk about this, but governments need this broadband for the purposes of providing outreach services, sustaining all their existing services in economic development and projecting themselves out there as an economic development location place for new businesses. 
When it gets to the support of chambers of commerce, industrial development authorities, business incue baiters, small businesses, central business districts, we have put the money behind these projects, it does turn around and create jobs and sustain jobs. 
When it comes to schools, schools are the trainers, they are the workforce trainers, the opportunity for getting relicensure. 
One thing that has not come out frequently here is you have broadband in a community, you may be able to sustain the youth that wants to get the hell out of there, because it's not an opportunity for them, it's not a place for them to stay for their future. 
>>  My name is frank cumberbranch, we serve rural Wisconsin. 
I have a question for Ms. Elehwany, and if I butchered your name, I'm sorry. 
If I told you that on our network we have a healthcare platform that allows the collaboration of folks in the healthcare ecosystem, whether it's a lab, pharmacy, neurologist in India to collaborate borate with a patient on our network and therefore allow seniors and people with chronic disease to stay in their homes over a lengthy period of time, I would like you to talk a little bit about what do you think that means for rural America? 
MS. ELEHWANY:  It means everything for rural America, especially for the patient that wants to remain in the area. 
I couldn't agree more about the comment about how important the healthcare provider is for the economic viability of the community itself. 
There is such a shortage of primary care providers, 50 million Americans live in areas where they can't even access basic primary care. 
This is the United States of America. 
Broadband capabilities will be able to do that. 
That linkage. 
If you can have the gatekeeper at the rural clinic or community health center and link them up with a specialist who can read a the CT scan, or read imaging, it can mean a difference, literally, of life and death. 
And not only that but if you make people feel comfortable in the area where they live, you have the schools and healthcare system in the area, other businesses will come as well. 
MODERATOR: Microphone number one. 
>>  I am man uel Gonzales who represents healthcare education and small business. 
I have comments in reference to the following, grants that prioritize maximum and marginalized communities not only in rural areas but in inner cities. 
We also need to avoid duplicate broadband networks in communities already served by at least one other providers. 
Consider the substantial long-term economic impact that broadband will have on education, job skills, consumer spending, access to government services and a variety of other benefits. 
Give grant applications that improve models for increasing adoption of community technology centers and IT training programs and do not discriminate against adoption focused project that is are on going in nature by broadband awareness education training, communities centers, etc., that will ultimately rely on state, local, or private funding over the long haul or as economic provisions improve. 
Lastly to Ms. Man netta's point don't forget the future job creators which are the future employers of this country which are small businesses. 
There is two programs at the small business agency, one is the small business development centers that offered tech nag assistance. 
But there was one that was scrapped several years ago that was called the business information center which are basingly put in rural or inner city areas where they can have access to broadband, technical assistance, a library and actual mentorship. 
Microphone number 2:  My name is Donnie Smith with Jaguar communications. 
We often work with EDA's, governmental bodies, schools, hospitals to provide broadband across our network. 
But my question is to this panel, is do they have any models or do they have any suggestions of where to find models to figure out what the economic benefit or impact of a project might be? 
MODERATOR: That's a good question. 
How do you do that? 
MR. CHASE:  The economic development administration has encoded performance benchmarks to measure job performance. 
They have funded a number of broadband projects over the years, so they have some data that you can use. 
The Appalachian regional commission that Harry represented and stood up earlier has done a lot of work on telecommunications and they have good data. 
And then USDA rural development has a program called CBASS which they use for various programs to learn how to measure jobs. 
MODERATOR: Thank you. 
That was very helpful. 
MS. GOLDMAN:  I wanted to add to that. 
What those agencies have done a great deal of work at is measuring the quantitative impact, but there is also a qualitative impact. 
A lot of programs we talked about the benefits to healthcare, the benefits to education, the benefits to our kids the benefits to community participation, to government delivery of services. 
Some of those you can't measure as well quantitatively. 
I would encourage the NTIA and RUS on top of everything else that has been encouraged over these days to fund research that is case study research, qualitative because that's how we begin to get at some of those spin-offs for this kind of investment as well. 
MODERATOR: Microphone 3. 
>>  Yes my name is Rudy Lewis. 
I am with the National Association of home based businesses. 
We were established in 1984. 
President Obama mentioned in his proposal a network of incue baiters. 
In support of the president, we have had incubators since 1991, and we think with virtual incubators we can provide assistance to small businesses regardless of their type and location. 
However, we are concerned because of the money that you have to put innovative projects that have been talked about, however, and we spent years developing a process, so we want to see how much value that is. 
Because as I heard each one talk about development, business development is key. 
And if we take our incubators, we can put it around every community, because a lot of the farmers you are talking about, they know nothing about international trade, and when you get the internet you can get to internet trade and there are rules and there is no time to learn, so we can provide that kind of support. 
Thank you. 
MODERATOR: Microphone 4, last question, it looks like. 
>>  Does that mean we get the first grant? 
Lisa herrara. 
I wanted to thank Bob for doing a great job and also your excellent staff with the various sign language interpreters, and closed captioning and audio visual people. 
I just quickly want to say in response to your question in the way we can use offsets to pay for these, in many ways it's fundamental to who we are as Americans that when we have new technology it stimulates new demand. 
When we built roads they led to cars, now it's leading to magazine nets to drive those cars when we built electricity lines we learned to do more with it than just keep lights on at night so for all these broadband initiatives and all the job creation we are talking about I think it's impossible for us to say that we could just cut a little bit of money from somewhere else and save it and that will take care of it, because demand will grow. 
At the local level I can tell you that what we are focused on is using broadband as a way to get jobs and we are scrounging, looking -- scrounging looking to how we can use it to get new jobs. 
I would like to ask your panel to challenge you to rapid fire, name some of the jobs that you think that broadband can bring to these communities that many people are not thing of that will help spur that inknow separation and that's what we think -- innovation and that's what we think will spur this bill. 
MODERATOR: You get to name one job category that no one might have thought about that will come to underserved or unserved communities just because of broadband. 
And looks like Susan is ready to go. 
MS. ALLEN:  I come from the business community although our name is pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce but we work with businesses of all colors. 
I wanted to show myself. 
My IT guy told me I am the most technological lady.  I have three phones, two blackberries, and one regular phone with me and I have a third laptop to travel with. 
Because I travel so much, I am never at my desk, hardly look at my PC on my desk. 
I use the blackberry as my office, because I have instant contact with my office, I can communicate with everybody who wants to reach me through my e-mail. 
Operating out of my blackberry and get more work done, I send a lot of orders and instruction to my office all over the country through that I created a lot of work and jobs. 
And I did that. 
MODERATOR: What new jobs will come to an unserved or underserved community because of broadband. 
Pass it along. 
MS. ELEHWANY:  It will bring healthcare providers not only physicians but other healthcare providers. 
Part of retaining and recruiting doctors is they lose the loss of collegeality and that urban center hub. 
MR. FONTES:  I think it's providing communication dispatchers to areas and no longer need to be tied to suburban or urban. 
MR. JOHNSON:  A group of jobs in south side Virginia, we used tobacco funding to bring a large business to the southwest Virginia to provide just a plethora of different kinds of jobs. 
It would cover the spectrum. 
Let me say one thing about that very quickly. 
We found out there that we have a problem because we cannot find local folks to fill those positions. 
So it probably could eventually but if you build out broadband into rural areas and you bring larger businesses there, we have to have a modeling plan to ensure that persons who live in those communities, if they do not have the training will be trained to meet the demand for these new jobs. 
MODERATOR: Matthew? 
MR. CHASE:  As secretary of education Richard Riley said, he said the top 10 jobs in demand in 2010 did not exist in 2000. 
So we don't know what some of those jobs but it will be engineering, advanced manufacturing, renewable energy, the laundry list, especially in rural areas where jobs may exist but now rural citizens will have access to it. 
MODERATOR: Sandy? 
MS. ROSENBLITH:  Professionals who move to rural for choice, because they can now conduct their business using broadband. 
So that could be architects, engineers, it could be designers, it could be many investment analysts. 
And you know, it's an unlimited list. 
MODERATOR: Debbie? 
MS. GOLDMAN:  It will provide career opportunity to people who have years of experience building and maintaining and operating networks, selling services, working in call centers, there is -- despite the view that all call center work is out-sourced, in fact, it's a generator of lots of jobs in America, and more and more are being brought back because we provide the quality service. 
MS. MANETTA:  I have two jobs that we can create in a rural environment. 
One is to start a new C -- I posed that to an Indian tribe they have no broadband what I said if you start your own network, a UPC or some sort of fund that the telecom industry has that I would set up my own little private network, number one. 
Number 2, I think we need cell phones or the power that lasts longer, something like a watch so that you shake it and it will power up I bet in rural America we will be able to do that. 
MODERATOR: Thank you very much. 
A great last word. 
I would like to thank the panel, first of all. 
I would very much like to thank the staff at NTIA, and this crew from the -- where are you from? 
"Show call" for the video. 
The staff at NTIA have done a fabulous job. 
I won't name everyone because I don't know everyone. 
I have been working with this big group of people working really hard and working so hard they haven't introduced themselves to me over the last six days but the one person I do know is Brian gibbons, Brian has been literally working night and day assembling slides and materials and literally has been all weekend, for example, preparing for this last two Monday and Tuesday's things. 
He has put in a tremendous amount of time and effort that wouldn't have gone off without him. 
I have enjoyed doing this roundtable for the last four sessions. 
I have learned a lot. 
I frankly have changed my mind on quite a number of things associated with the broadband stimulus program. 
I hope if that represents the kind of influence that these roundtables have on NTIA and RUS as a work on their work, then I think these have been effective and influential. 
I have seen new things, got some new ideas, and therefore I think this has been extraordinarily worthwhile. 
Remember April 13, in terms of getting responses to the RFI in, and on that note, I think we will close the proceedings and I thank you very much for your participation and interest. 
Thank you. 
(End of proceedings).