FCC Previews National Broadband Plan
By Chris Weiss
The FCC will present its National Broadband Plan to Congress tomorrow, and today, the agency offered an executive summary of its plan. The overarching goal of the plan is to extend fast, affordable broadband access to the entire country, providing Internet speeds of 100 Mbps in at least 100 million homes by 2020, and giving the U.S. the “the fastest and most extensive wireless networks of any nation.”
The 100 million homes represent the number of Americans that do not enjoy access today. Some of those homes are barred by price and disinterest, but 14 million homes do not even have access to broadband services.
Other key components of the plan:
- Providing access to super-fast service with speeds of 1 Gbps in public facilities like schools, hospitals and government buildings
- Creating a public safety wireless network for emergency use by police, fire fighters and public safety officials
- Designating a larger number of the radio frequencies to wireless broadband
- Giving more power to the FCC in auctioning off and designating spectrums for wireless broadband
