Book Description
As part of its effort to save an ailing economy from a deeper recession, Congress, in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the “Recovery Act”), charged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with preparing a national broadband plan to ensure that “all the people of the United States have access to broadband capability.” A bit over a year later, “Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan” has been submitted to Congress as the FCC's plan for ensuring broadband availability across the land. The National Broadband Plan takes a holistic look at the role of broadband Internet investment, deployment, competition and adoption in our society and economy. The Plan looks at policies and actions in three categories: fostering innovation and competition in networks, devices and applications; redirecting assets that government controls or influences in order to spur investment and inclusion; and optimizing the use of broadband to help achieve national priorities. It was a monumental undertaking for the FCC, the process used to generate its data and recommendations was open and participatory, and the Plan is impressive in the depth and breadth. A comprehensive assessment of the Plan is well beyond the scope of this piece, which focuses primarily on those pieces of the Plan in Part I, addressing broadband competition and innovation policy.
