The Federal Communications Commission had begun work on a National Broadband Plan, which will benefit citizens and businesses. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act called upon the FCC to submit a national broadband plan to Congress by February 17, 2010 that discusses broadband deployment, adoption, affordability and the use of broadband in relation to education, energy, efficiency, and public safety.

Julius Genachowski, Federal Communications Commission chairman explained at the recent opening broadband workshop that broadband “is to us what railroads, electricity, highways and telephones were to previous generations—a platform for commerce, for democratic engagement, and for helping address major national challenges.”

The plan is to reduce the Digital Divide and bring broadband to nearly 40 percent of Americans not yet served by broadband to the home. In some areas, this figure is as high as 60 percent. The National Broadband Plan will also create jobs, spur innovation and promote competition. 

Technology vendors and service providers have the opportunity to unite the country in this initiative; one which is easily understandable by citizens, the press and legislators and bring the benefits of technology to underserved and un-served areas.  Who knows? Perhaps broadband can be for the early 21st century what putting a man on the moon was in the 1960s—a point of patriotism and progress for the country.

Written by Lynda Starr

Last 3 posts by lstarr

• We're all in the Communications Business - February 13th, 2009
• IPTV: Service and a Smile - January 15th, 2009
• Clarity is Key - November 11th, 2008

Tags: broadband, innovation, patriotism, policy, telecom, Vantage Communications, video, YouTube

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 11:31 am and is filed under High Tech PR, Technology, Uncategorized, Wireless and Mobile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.