TechNet, a high-tech political and policy trade association in the US, advocates the goal of making a 100 megabit per second broadband connection available to 100 million homes and small businesses by 2010. TechNet asserts that broadband rollout must be a national imperative, not only as a matter of future economic development, but also to deliver Internet opportunity across all socio-economic groups. TechNet has developed six principles that may be of interest to governments and municipalities in other areas of the world:

Metro Ethernet is in a unique position to support all 6 principles:

1. First, broadband policy should be 'technology neutral" . Government should not pick technology winners and losers. Instead, competition should drive the deployment of a range of broadband technologies and services to consumers.
   
2. Second, policymakers should exercise regulatory restraint to encourage the development of new broadband applications and services. We want new and compelling 'killer applications" to drive consumer demand for broadband, which will, in turn, spur investment in the network. Government should refrain from regulating advanced services that are essential drivers of broadband, such as voice and video over the Internet. While industry will drive much of broadband’s growth, government should be a leading user of broadband, through its own procurement and e-government investments in education, health, and other traditional governmental services.
   
3. Third, public policy should create an environment in which all consumers can choose among multiple providers of broadband networks. Much of the broadband progress we have already achieved required significant capital outlays. To get true broadband for everyone, an additional $300 billion must be invested. But this investment will not happen in an uncertain regulatory environment, not by corporations or by investors. In this environment, government regulation will have the most significant impact and good government means regulatory certainty.
   
4. Fourth, states and local governments should streamline the building of broadband networks. Greater intrastate and interstate consistency should be encouraged. Most importantly, companies building high-speed networks should gain rights of way and be relatively free of regulatory restraints and excessive fees. The primary goal of state and local policy should be to encourage deployment of broadband to as many citizens as possible - not merely to generate government revenues by taxes or tariffs.
   
5. Fifth, properly allocating spectrum for valuable wireless Internet applications is critical for competition among multiple broadband technologies - and the availability of broadband to rural communities. We need a national spectrum policy using market-based approaches to allocate spectrum to the highest-value applications. Government revenue generation should be secondary.
   
6. Sixth, even as we accelerate broadband deployment, some of the population, including rural communities, will be left behind. We need to support targeted incentives to encourage broadband deployment to underserved communities and businesses.