In a comprehensive, 376-page proposal entitled “National Broadband Plan” (Plan), the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has set out a menu and an agenda to deepen broadband Internet penetration across the United States.
Attempting to echo calls in earlier generations for a transcontinental railroad and a telephone in every home, the proposals, which the FCC sent to Congress for legislative action, set goals of 100 million US households having access to broadband of speeds of at least 100 megabits per second by 2020. For community institutions such as hospitals and schools, the goal would be speeds 10 times faster than for consumers. According to the Plan, the average home connection in the US is now only three to four megabits a second.
To promote the Plan, a wide-ranging web site, www.broadband.gov, has been set up with sub-pages on topics such as Education, Energy and Environment, [Measuring] Government Performance, Public Safety, Economic Opportunity and Health Care.
For articles in the Washington Post and the New York Times, respectively, see:
http://tinyurl.com/yj2fvy6; and
Summary by: Richard Potter
