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FCC uses tax dollars to tell us what we already know about broadband
Cliff
October 2, 2009 3:09 PM ET in Tech
Two days ago the FCC released the preliminary findings from its broadband task force. President Obama has directed the FCC to submit a national broadband plan to Congress by February 17, 2010 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The task at hand? Come up with the most efficient way to spend stimulus dollars to bolster the nation’s broadband infrastructure.
The report states a need to add broadband deployment, adoption, affordability, and technology to national priorities like health care, education and finance. The endgame, says the FCC, is to adopt and provide a policy of universal broadband.
This phase of the plan covers specific findings from the commission’s previous studies. Amongst the FCC’s findings:
- Millions still cannot get even the most basic definition of broadband, or a line with 768Kbps downstream.
- Most of the current bandwidth is used by a smaller percentage of users.
- Your ISP is not providing you with the advertised speed the majority of the time.
The report notes that actual speeds lag behind advertisements by as much as 80%. It also indicates that about 20% of the users drive 80% of the total traffic.
This just in: Broadband providers over-promise on the speeds they deliver, and the kid that downloads hundreds of movies and songs a week takes more than their fair share of the available bandwidth. Who knew?
In all seriousness, the FCC is off to a good start. By February 17, the FCC should have a detailed analysis of how much stimulus money will be needed to get the United States in a leadership position for worldwide broadband.
Preliminary findings indicate that a $350 billion investment could equip all Americans with affordable 100Mbps lines. Bandwidth like that has many benefits, including improved wireless services, better energy grids, improved education and so on.
This is something America needs to do to keep pace in an extraordinarily competitive global economy. We will be eagerly awaiting the FCC’s recommendations in 2010.
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