Posts Tagged ‘National Broadband Plan’
Broadband Plan: A Guide To America’S Web Revolution
The federal government plans to give Americans the world’s fastest Internet access. How will they do itand when will it happen?
Could the FCC’s National Broadband Plan transform America?Photo: Corbis
Best Opinion: NY Times, Politico, BusinessWeek, Wash. Post, CNET, PC Mag
Truth, justice, and high-speed internet access for all? The Federal Communications Commission is set to present Congress with an “ambitious” proposal to establish a super-high-speed broadband Internet network throughout the USA within the next 10 years. Not everyone is thrilled with the “National Broadband Plan”: Television broadcasters say it will compromise their business, and are already gearing up to fight it. Here, a concise guide to the FCC’s plan, what it could mean for Americansand why it might not work:
What’s the goal?
The National Broadband Plan is designed to give every American access to affordable high-speed Internet, and to increase broadband download speeds from an average of 3 to 4 megabits per second to at least 100 Mbps.
How many Americans have access to high-speed broadband right now?
Just over one-fourth of the population, or around 81 million citizens.
How does that compare with, say, Germany?
In terms of broadband access, America’s ranking has dropped to 15th (down from fourth in 2009) behind countries like Germany, Sweden, and Canada (the Netherlands ranks first). While not all studies confirm that ranking, says FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in The Washington Post, “none puts us even close to where we need to be” competitively. (Watch an interview with the FCC chairman.)
How will the National Broadband Plan work?
It will expand high-speed Internet access to rural areas and open up new wireless bandwidth. You’ll be able to use smart phones or wireless devices like an Apple iPad as easily in Montana as in Manhattan.
How much will this vast undertaking cost?
The FCC estimates the plan could cost up to $350 billion over the next 10 years.
Who’s going to foot the bill?
This remains unclear. A corollary question: How much of the cost will be covered by tax dollars versus private investment?
Why is this so important?
Americans will pay less for high-speed Internet access. Beyond that, the FCC says the plan will improve education; reduce costs of health-care providers; allow the technology sector to innovate more aggressively; and give small businesses greater access to customers, especially in rural areas. But the “biggest winners” may be “mobile phone companies” like AT&T and Verizon, says Todd Shields in BusinessWeek, since the plan would greatly increase access to nationwide high-speed wireless signals.
When could we start seeing changes?
The FCC hopes changes will take place within the next five years, but that doesn’t factor in opposition to the plan, expected to be significant. “Each bullet point [of the plan],” says analyst Craig Moffett in an interview with The New York Times, “will trigger its own tortuous battle.”
Who opposes it and why?
The most fervent objections come from television broadcasters, who’d be required to “voluntarily” donate 500 MHz of their unused wireless bandwidth to the federal government, which would, in turn, sell the “spectrums” to the highest telecom bidder and give the TV stations a percentage. Broadcasters say this plan compromises their own expansion potential.
Is it just TV broadcasters who don’t like it?
No. Many in Washington and elsewhere are raising the specter of government Internet regulation. “Say goodbye to an open, flexible, consumer-driven Internet,” says an anonymous blogger at RedCounty.com, and “say hello to a big-government, regulated, censored behemoth.”
Fcc Tasks Isps To Put The Pedal To The Metal At 100mb
We imagine the suits over at the FCC must be big fans of the movie Top Gun, because a major new Internet policy that’s about to be unveiled proves someone in Washington feels the need for speed. We’re talking about a policy that would task ISPs with putting 100Mbps speeds in place at 100 million American homes within the next decade.
That’s just one of several goals outlined in the National Broadband Plan, though it’s the one that’s drawing the most ire from a handful of ISPs who oppose “extreme forms of regulation” by the FCC.
“This is a fairly unique event,” said Paul Gallant, an analyst with Concept Capital. “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.”
Naturally, the FCC feels different, and according to the agency’s chief, Julius Genachowski, the proposal is a “win-win for everyone involved.”
“We’ve certainly heard from a number of broadcasters who told us they think this is a promising direction and are getting ready to roll up their sleeves with us,” Genachowski added.
Broadband providers are probably most concerned with the cost associated with the FCC’s proposal, but should they be? According to ABI Research, global fixed broadband service revenue is expected to exceed $210 billion in 2014, up from $164 billion in 2009, and $145 billion in 2008. Those are global figures, mind you, but still a staggering amount of revenue. Even during an economic downturn, ISPs appear to be as financially strong as ever, at least in terms of broadband dollars.
There are many other parts to the National Broadband Plan, such as a $16 billion investment to build an emergency public safety system, a one-time investment of $9 billion to extend the reach of broadband into rural areas, ensuring that government buildings, schools, libraries, and healthcare facilities get speeds in the vicinity of 1Gbps by 2020, and more.
Ambitious, to say the least, but entirely “achievable,” Genachowski says.
Source: hothardware.com
U.s. To Roll Out Major Broadband Policy – Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
U.S. regulators will announce a major Internet policy this week to revolutionize how Americans communicate and play, proposing a dramatic increase in broadband speeds that could let people download a high-definition film in minutes instead of hours.
Dramatically increasing Internet speeds to 25 times the current average is one of the myriad goals to be unveiled in the National Broadband Plan by the the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday.
The highly anticipated plan will make a series of recommendations to Congress and is aimed at spurring the ever-changing communications industry to bring more and faster online services to Americans as they increasingly turn to the Internet to communicate, pay monthly bills, make travel plans and be entertained by movies and music.
“This is a fairly unique event,” said Paul Gallant, an analyst with Concept Capital. “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.”
Some details of the plan have trickled out in the last few weeks including how to find spectrum to meet an anticipated explosion of handset devices capable of playing movies and music in addition to handling emails and voice calls.
But some carriers like AT&T Inc and Qwest Communications International Inc were irked last month when the agency’s chief, Julius Genachowski, announced that the FCC would propose in the plan a goal of 100 Mbps speeds to be in place at 100 million American homes in 10 years. The current average is less than 4 Mbps.
In a sign of tension between the FCC and carriers, Qwest called it “a dream” and AT&T reacted by saying the FCC should resist calls for “extreme forms of regulation.”
Since the FCC announcement, Cisco Systems Inc announced it would introduce a router that can handle Internet traffic up to 12 times faster than rival products. Google Inc has also gotten in on the hype, saying it plans to build a super-fast Internet network to show that it can be done. The FCC has praised both announcements.
The plans could also touch off tensions with television broadcasters, who will be asked to give up spectrum to wireless carriers who desperately need it for their mobile devices, such as the iPhone and Blackberry.
The FCC plans to let them share in the profits of auctions structured to redistribute the spectrum.
“We’ve developed a plan that is a real win-win for everyone involved and we have every expectation that it will work,” Genachowski said in an interview with Reuters.
“We’ve certainly heard from a number of broadcasters who told us they think this is a promising direction and are getting ready to roll up their sleeves with us,” he said.
The FCC also wants to make sure that anchor institutions — government buildings, schools, libraries and healthcare facilities — get speeds of about 1 gigabit per second by 2020.
The full broadband plan is expected to be released at a Tuesday meeting among the FCC’s five members who are expected to discuss the results and recommendations of the roadmap, which was mandated by Congress. Congress may have to pass legislation to enact some portions of the plan.
FCC officials have said some of the goals are aspirational and should be viewed as a “living, breathing” document for the next decade in hopes of helping 93 million Americans without broadband get connected.
ACHIEVABLE
“It is both aspiration and achievable,” Genachowski said.
The Obama administration has touted the plan as a way to create jobs and make energy use more efficient.
“It will be a call to action,” said Blair Levin, who heads the FCC’s broadband task force which has collected data and comments from the industry, academics and the public as well as from three dozen public workshops.
The FCC has placed most of its attention on broadband policy which Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, called “the signature issue” since Genachowski took over the helm in late June.
“It means that broadband is going to drive other types of policy decisions and it really sets the parameters for telecommunications and new applications,” West said.
FCC officials have said that the plan will not take sides on technology or applications, but they want to lay the groundwork to spur innovation and job creation.
Officials have said the plan will ask Congress to fund up to $16 billion to build an emergency public safety system.
It would also tell lawmakers that a one-time injection of $9 billion could accelerate broadband reach to the 4 percent of Americans who do have access. Otherwise they could let the FCC carry out a 10-year plan to realign an $8 billion U.S. subsidy program for universal broadband access instead of universal phone access.
Experts call the plan ambitious but question if the FCC, which plans to spin off a series of rule-making proposals linked to the plan, can realistically make good on its recommendations.
“There’s so little progress on this stuff in Washington,” said Rob Atkinson, who heads the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
“I think Chairman Genachowski has a real opportunity to bring different warring interests under 50-75 percent of the plan.”
(Reporting by John Poirier and Sinead Carew, editing by Matthew Lewis)
Source: news.yahoo.com