FCC to look at broadband

Submitted by acohill on Tue, 05/01/2007 - 09:27

The FCC has announced that the agency will take another look at broadband, meaning the Federal Communications Commission might actually revise the definition of broadband to something that is actually meaningful, rather than the current 256 kilobits, or in shorthand, "...a little faster than dial up."

While one third of Japanese homes and businesses already have fiber connections, with 50 megabit service going for as little as $27/month, the FCC has stubbornly tried to prop up incumbent telephone and cable broadband providers by setting the broadband bar so low as to make the U.S. the broadband laughingstock of the rest of the world. Vienna, Austria is busying running fiber to every premise in the city, while "advanced broadband" discussions in the U.S. usually mean a couple of underpowered wireless access points on Main Street.

Even more encouraging, the FCC is apparently going to rethink the way it counts broadband in the U.S. Currently, if a single home in a zip code area has DSL or cable modem service, the FCC counts the entire zip code as having broadband. This explains why we see government statistics claiming something north of 90% of the U.S. has broadband.

The Federal government is not going to solve the broadband problem for communities. Most state governments do not have the funds to help with much more than initial planning efforts. So communities that want to increase economic development and help create new job opportunities will have to do it themselves. Fortunately, there is plenty of money locally to do this, and raising taxes is not required. Call us if you want more information about how to get real broadband in your community or region.