US national broadband plan is extremely ambitious
The Federal Communications Commission is planning on releasing the full national broadband proposal this Tuesday to Congress. This national broadband plan was initiated by Congress and handed over to the FCC to layout goals and recommendations to build a new emergency wireless broadband network across the U.S.
According to Reuters, the plan calls for a dramatic increase in Internet speeds then what is currently available. The plan indicates that the target Internet speed should be 25 times faster than the current average.
There is some concern over the scale and scope of the project as it could potentially have detrimental impacts to other sectors. A major shift in focus onto the national broadband plan by the FCC could potentially impact other communications sectors. Paul Gallant, an analyst for Concept Capital stated:
The FCC really has never been asked to design a broad regulatory shift like this. Broadband is important and difficult because it threatens every established communications sector.
There is tension building up with some carriers, such as AT&T and Quest Communications International Inc after the FCC’s proposal to boost the Internet speed from 4 Mbps to 100 Mbps in a matter of 10 years. Quest Communications called the proposal “a dream” while AT&T criticized the FCC’s behavior as being strict.
FCC officials have stated that the goal of the national broadband plan is to help get 94 million Americans connected who don’t have broadband service currently. The Obama administration believes that the plan will also create more jobs and would also help improve efficiency.
The FCC will not be pushing one technology or application over the other, but will be assisting in laying the foundation for the plan. The FCC will be asking Congress to help fund up to $16 billion to build an emergency public wireless broadband network.
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