July 21, 2010
Congress has directed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to determine whether broadband "is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion."
The FCC says it isn't.
In its Sixth Broadband Deployment Report, the agency reports between 14 and 24 million Americans still lack access to broadband, and the immediate prospects for deployment to them are bleak.
"This report underscores the need for comprehensive reform of the Universal Service Fund, innovative approaches to unleashing new spectrum, and removal of barriers to infrastructure investment," the FCC said in its report.
In most urban areas broadband service is an accepted norm, essential for jobs, economic growth, global competitiveness, and democratic engagement. But the FCC said millions of Americans live in areas without broadband, mostly in rural areas that will remain unserved without reform of the universal service program and other changes to U.S. broadband policy that spur investment in broadband networks by lowering the cost of deployment.
Recommendations
The report concludes that the goal of universal availability -- deployment to all Americans -- is not being met in a timely way, and proposes to address key recommendations from the FCC's National Broadband Plan to connect all Americans as quickly as possible, including:
• Reforming the FCC's universal service programs to support broadband through public-private partnerships;
• Unleashing spectrum for mobile broadband;
• Reducing barriers to infrastructure investment, including delays in access to poles and rights-of-way;
• Collecting better broadband data to assist policymakers and consumers.
The report also updates a key standard -- speed -- used to determine whether households are served by broadband. It upgrades the standard from 200 kilobits per second downstream, a standard set over a decade ago when web pages were largely text-based, to four megabits per second (Mbps) downstream and one Mbps upstream.
"This is a minimum speed generally required for using today's video-rich broadband applications and services, while retaining sufficient capacity for basic web browsing and e-mail," the report said. "The Commission's standard will evolve over time."
Commonly known as the "706 Report," the report includes for the first time a comprehensive list of unserved areas, compiled from data not previously available to the FCC.
