BTOP Program Was a Success, Strickling Says

The NTIA’s Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program (BTOP) has been a success, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said Wednesday at a Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy event on the National Broadband Plan. “We all know there’s still much more work to be done,” he said. BTOP grantees have deployed more than 113,000 miles of new or upgraded broadband connections and connected more than 25,000 “community anchor” institutions. Hundreds of thousands of Americans now have broadband as a result of the program, he said. The plan itself was key in raising an early alert about the need for more spectrum for wireless broadband, Strickling said. “It seems obvious today, but I don’t think it was quite so obvious back in 2010, the speed with which wireless devices were going to take over,” he said.