Many broadband groups and fake grassroots groups (astroturf) are lobbying the U.S. government to dish out cash to the phone and cable companies to help deploy fiber -- but the phone and cable companies are already planning to deploy fiber (at least, to wealthy neighborhoods).

Free Press has a better idea. In its Down Payment on our Digital Future (.pdf), it argues for a smaller, less expensive program that would deliver greater change.

Among its good ideas: loans instead of handouts to builders of broadband, and targeting the cash to poor and rural areas.

Of particular interest to small ISPs, the Competitive Tax Fiber Incentive Program ($5 billion) supports open access. It is "is designed to deploy world class fiber-optic networks which are shared by multiple competitors."

It's good to see competition in a proposal.

Ars Technica notes that something like this will be implemented, commenting, "Obama, who may be the first US president to really "get" the Internet, has repeatedly stressed the importance of broadband infrastructure and network neutrality; the real surprises will come when we see what actually gets passed, what Congress and the President are willing to spend on it, where the money goes, and just how accountable the entire payout will be."

Accountability would be a big change. In an article published today (Universal Service: Uncle Sam's Blank Check), Fred Goldstein notes:

"USAC does not waste precious ratepayer time doing cost-benefit assessments of its HCF recipients’ projects. It does audit them to be sure that the money was spent on allowable projects, but that doesn’t mean that projects must be sensible. Take, for instance, Border to Border Communications, the telephone company in rural Zapata County, Texas. ATT Southwestern Bell is the ILEC in Zapata city, and they don’t get any HCF in Texas. Border to Border has the surrounding countryside, with about 150 phone lines in all spread across 850 square miles. They originally used rural radio systems to provide voice service. Their affiliated ISP also put up a countywide WiFi network, but that wasn’t USF-eligible. Border to Border got a $23 million loan (about $150,000 per line!) from the Rural Utilities Service in 2003 to install a fiber optic network. This is paid back by USF to the tune of $164 thousand per month. That’s over a thousand dollars per line per month."