FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEWS
MEDIA CONTACT:
September 29, 2009 Mark
Wigfield
(202)
418-0253
Email:
mark.wigfield@fcc.gov
BROADBAND TASK FORCE DELIVERS STATUS REPORT ON FEB. 17
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
Staff Details State of U.S. Broadband, Outlines Path
Forward
Washington - With 141 days remaining before the Federal
Communications Commission must deliver a National Broadband Plan to
Congress, the task
force developing the plan provided a status report to the
Commission during its monthly meeting Tuesday.
The presentation includes an initial report on the
current state of broadband in the U.S., and describes the framework the
team will use to
both analyze gaps in broadband's reach and find solutions
to close those gaps.
Comprehensive in scope, the presentation is designed to give
Commissioners the information they need to question
staff, provide feedback, and recommend any mid-course corrections that
may be needed.
The public is also encouraged to comment on the findings.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
directed the FCC to submit a National Broadband Plan to Congress by February
17, 2010 that addresses broadband deployment, adoption, affordability,
and the use of broadband to advance solutions to national priorities,
including health
care, education, energy, public safety, job creation,
investment, and others.
The plan will provide concrete recommendations on how to
successfully deliver on the infrastructure challenge of our time: provision and adoption of universal broadband.
To date, the broadband task force's efforts have focused
on gathering the facts and data needed to develop the plan. Its efforts have
included 26 workshops and hearings on key topics, with
another six scheduled. About
230 witnesses have testified during these sessions.
At the same time, nearly 41,000 pages of written comments
have been filed with the FCC in response to its National Broadband
Plan Notice of Inquiry, with another 143 response to Public Notices
requesting more focused information.
Nearly 40 blogs have been posted on the FCC's new
Blogband page, which have prompted over 300 comments to
date, all of which will be included in the official record.
Following are some of the key areas outlined in the
presentation:
The Framework: Congress required the Commission to craft
a strategy for delivery of universal, affordable, widely adopted
broadband to serve
vital national purposes.
Capturing all the external benefits of broadband to society and the economy is key to the
analysis of the costs
and benefits of universality. Benefits include consumer savings, health care improvements, educational and employment
opportunities, and more.
Subsidy mechanisms must also be considered as a means to
universal adoption, but current mechanisms, such as Universal
Service and stimulus
grants, are insufficient to achieve national
purposes. On the other side of the ledger, reducing the cost of key inputs, such
as spectrum,
rights of way, backhaul, and fiber, can extend the reach
and performance of broadband.
Applications: Most broadband applications focus on
browsing,communication and entertainment. Increasingly, these uses are evolving to education, job training, business and other productive
purposes.
Different applications require different broadband
speeds, with the most demanding being high-definition streamed video. But actual broadband speeds lag advertised speeds by as much as 50% to
80%. Peak usage hours, typically 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., create network
congestion and speed
degradation. About
1% of users drive 20% of traffic, while 20% of users drive up to 80% of traffic. A constrained network dictates investment
needs in infrastructure.
Deployment: Preliminary analysis indicates that
approximately three to six million people are unserved by basic broadband
(speeds of 768 Kbps
or less). The
number of unserved increases as the definition of minimum broadband speed increases. The incremental cost to universal
availability varies significantly depending on the speed
of service, with preliminary estimates showing that the total
investment required
ranging from $20 billion for 768 Mbps-3 Mbps service to
$350 billion for 100 Mbps or faster.
The cost of providing consumers with a choice of
infrastructure providers, and/or ensuring that all
consumers have access to both fixed and mobile broadband would be significantly
higher than
these initial estimates.
The cost to provide service in rural areas is significantly higher than in urban areas, and is driven
not only by
higher capital expenditures, but also significantly
higher recurring operating expenses largely driven by transport and
transit. Universal
Service Fund recipients have made progress bringing
broadband to rural America, but the fund faces systemic and structural
problems. The task
force continues to gather additional data and analysis
and refine the above estimates.
Adoption: Nearly 2/3 of Americans have adopted broadband
at home, while 33% have access but have not adopted it, and another 4%
say they have no
access where they live.
But large segments of the population have much lower penetration rates, and adoption levels vary across
demographic
groups. The cost
of digital exclusion is large and growing for non-adopters, as resources for employment, education,
news, healthcare
and shopping for goods and services increasingly move on
line. The task force has commissioned its own survey to learn how three
key factors
affect adoption:
attitudes toward broadband and technology, affordability and personal context (home environment,
access to libraries, disabilities, etc.). Results are expected in November.
Spectrum: Wireless is increasingly moving to broadband, with
smartphone sales projected to overtake sales of standard phones by
2011. However, these bandwidth-hungry devices, applications and users
are buffeting
existing network capacity and driving many to cite the
need for additional spectrum.
The task force is actively assessing the long-term spectrum needs of the country for mobile broadband
services.
International Broadband Plans: The driving force behind national broadband plans in other nations has been
competitiveness, job creation
and innovation.
Successful plans need four or more years of continuous effort and consistent funding sources.
National Purposes: Broadband can be part of the solution
to many of the nation's challenges, creating economic and social
benefits, which
include:
* Healthcare:
Electronic health records, telemedicine, and mobile
monitoring result in better, more affordable health care,
but the record
shows a need for higher connectivity in many locations to
capture those
benefits
* Energy and the
environment: Enabled by broadband, smart
grids,
smart homes and smart transportation will be a critical
part of our
clean energy future
* Government
operations and civic engagement: Delivery of
services, civic engagement, transparency in public policy
can all be
improved by broadband access and adoption
* Education:
Over 70 percent of all high school students use the
Internet as a primary source for homework. Digital textbooks, online
learning, teacher support and communications, digital
student records
can improve weak U.S. educational outcomes. While the E-rate program
has connected schools, faster speeds are needed
* Disabilities:
Internet use usage among people with disabilities
is less than half that of the general population. Networks, equipment,
services, devices and software are not designed to be
accessible to
people with disabilities.
Accessibility is also lacking in Internet
content, interfaces, programming guides and menus, and
tech support
* Consumer
welfare: Consumers say online purchases save time and
money. Yet 39%
have strong worries about giving out personal or credit
card information.
These worries are heightened among low-income users,
only 29% of whom have made purchases online, compared to
82% of upper
income users. More
transparency in billing and the on-line environment
could ease security concerns, as could education and
consumer workshops
on privacy and security
* Public Safety:
Public safety entities only have access to
commercial broadband services. There are no mobile,
wireless broadband
communications services that meet the public safety
community's
specialized needs.
These services should be provided over time
* Economic
Opportunity: As of 2005, over 77 percent
of Fortune
500 companies posted jobs and accepted applications
solely online. An
ever-increasing majority of employees are required to use
the Internet
in their daily work.