Genachowski Says National Plan to Set Goal of 100 Mbps Broadband

"We should stretch beyond 100 megabits,” Genachowski said. “The U.S. should lead the world in ultra-high-speed broadband testbeds as fast, or faster, than anywhere in the world. In the global race to the top, this will help ensure that America has the infrastructure to host the boldest innovations that can be imagined.” Genachowski noted that Google last week announced plans for a one gigabit testbed. “We need others to drive competition to invent the future megabits per second -- to unleash American ingenuity and ensure that businesses, large and small, are created here, move here, and stay here,” he said.

Genachowski also said the National Broadband Plan will include recommendations for improving “the highly successful E-Rate program” and for modernizing the FCC’s rural telemedicine program “to connect thousands of additional clinics and break down bureaucratic barriers to a telehealth future.” He laid out other likely recommendations in the plan, including the need for additional spectrum for wireless broadband and for a “smart” electric grid, and a national wireless broadband network serving public safety.

Staff developing the plan are expected to brief the FCC Thursday with the latest in a continuing series of updates during the commission’s monthly meeting, which was delayed from last week. Genachowski’s office has been on the Hill briefing Commerce Committee staff from both chambers on the overall national purposes goals of the broadband plan, Hill staffers said Tuesday. More Hill briefings are planned soon regarding more technical issues such as the Universal Service Fund, they said. The FCC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Broadband adoption is accelerating, with 64 percent of households reporting they have access at home as of last October, compared to 51 percent two years earlier, NTIA said in a report based on a survey of more than 50,000 households by the U.S. Census Bureau.

A digital divide continues, though “virtually all demographic groups” have increased their adoption rates, NTIA said. “Persons with high incomes, those who are younger, Asians and Whites, the more highly-educated, married couples, and the employed tend to have higher rates of broadband use at home,” NTIA said. “Conversely, persons with low incomes, seniors, minorities, the less-educated, non-family households, and the non-employed tend to lag behind other groups in home broadband use.” While net numbers are increasing across the board, groups that have lagged behind in the past continue to lag. For example, 18.6 percent of those with an annual household income of less than $15,000 had broadband in October 2007 and 29.2 percent did during the recent study. Meanwhile, the adoption rate increased from 82.4 percent to 88.7 percent for those with $150,000 or more of income during the same period.

More than 30 percent of households and 35 percent of persons do not use the Internet at home, and 30 percent of all persons do not use the Internet anywhere, NTIA found. “Overall, the two most important reasons given by survey respondents for not having broadband access at home are ‘don’t need’ and ’too expensive,'” NTIA said. “Inadequate or no computer is also a major reason given for no home broadband adoption."

Meanwhile, the Genachowski announcement that the FCC would set a goal for fast broadband connections got mixed reviews. “We support the FCC’s ambitious goal,” said Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott. “Now let’s get to work on the policy changes that are necessary to make it a reality. We need our leaders to be focused on implementing the right pro-competitive, pro-openness policies for all Americans.” The goal is “an important step to bring United States connectivity inline with international norms for speed”, said James Losey, program associate at the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative. “The past decade of policy decisions have decayed American leadership in connectivity and this initiative can help turn that around."

But Free State Foundation President Randolph May said “hortatory goals” like those laid out by Genachowski are less important than other “specific and practical” recommendations expected to be part of the plan. “It’s hard not to be sympathetic to the widely-shared, aspirational goals articulated in the Chairman’s speech,” May said. “But in my view the most important thing the FCC can do in the broadband plan is to recommend specific action-items for getting broadband to areas in which it is currently unavailable; for providing Lifeline/Linkup-like subsidies to qualifying low income households to help close the adoption gap; and for making available more spectrum for wireless broadband providers."

"The market, via facilities-based competition and no Internet regulation, is already well on its way to achieving the Chairman’s aspirational goals of a 100 Mbps to 100 million households by 2020,” said Scott Cleland, chairman of Broadband.com. “However, the big open question here is whether Chairman Genachowski believes the titular ‘broadband engine’ of his speech should remain a private sector engine that is private property and fueled by profit and investment returns, or whether the ‘broadband engine’ should somehow become quasi public property, heavily regulated like a public utility, and more government funded and controlled."

An AT&T spokesperson said the FCC must recognize “the massive investment by the private sector that will be required.” Since FCC staff has estimated it would cost an additional $350 billion to bring 100 Mbps service to every household in America, “It is thus all the more important that the FCC resist calls for extreme forms of regulation that would cripple, if not destroy, the very investments needed to realize its goal,” the spokesperson said.

Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld said he was pleased the goal goes well beyond the status quo. “We remain skeptical that gentle nudges such as public/private partnerships and opening federal conduits can get us to 100 Mbps for 100 million,” Feld said. “Pushing providers out of their ‘comfort zones’ on speed, deployment and affordability will require serious steps to increase competition that the FCC cannot sugar coat. In particular, Public Knowledge continues to urge the FCC to adopt rules to prevent ILECs from eliminating existing copper loops and to require incumbent cable and telephone providers to open their networks to rivals for resale.”