FCC Wants National Broadband Plan

16 Mar, 2010 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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In the 1928 presidential campaign, candidate Herbert Hoover promised “a chicken in every pot,” among other lofty declarations.

Fast-forward 82 years and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) March 16 released the country’s first national broadband plan outlining a goal to provide “affordable” high-speed Internet access to every American, among other directives.

The ambitious 360-page plan proposes as its first goal that at least 100 million U.S. homes have access to actual download speeds of at least 100 Mbps and upload speeds of at least 50 Mbps.

Currently, most broadband homes have download speeds of from 3 Mbps to 20 Mbps, according to the Commerce Department, which added that about 40% of Americans do not have access to any broadband connectivity.

High-speed Internet access and mobile phone connectivity are considered lynchpins to the Obama Administration’s goal for the United States to become a world leader in broadband access by 2020.

To cable operators, increased broadband connectivity would help the proliferation of entertainment content, including video-on-demand (VOD) movies in high-definition and pay-per-view, delivered via the Web and onto a TV in the home.

Comcast and Time Warner Cable, the nation’s largest cable operators, lauded government efforts to expand broadband access.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said the FCC plan would hopefully do away with outdated subsidy and policy constraints regarding private investment in the cable industry.

“With the demand for bandwidth doubling every two years … we hope that implementation of the many recommendations contained in the plan will help to achieve that critical balance, and we look forward to playing our part in helping to make America the most connected nation on earth,” Roberts said in a statement.

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