The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) 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 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released an initial report on the current state of broadband in the U.S.
- Actual broadband speeds lag advertised speeds by at least 50% and possibly more during the busy hours.
- About 1% of users drive 20% of traffic, while 20% of users drive up to 80% of traffic.
- Preliminary analysis indicates that approximately three to six million people are unserved by basic broadband (speeds of 768 Kbps or less).
- Preliminary estimates showing that the total investment required for universal broadband access 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.
- Universal Service Fund recipients have made progress bringing broadband to rural America, but the fund faces systemic and structural problems.
- 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.
- Wireless is increasingly moving to broadband, with smartphone sales projected to overtake sales of standard phones by 2011.
- Bandwidth-hungry devices, applications and users are putting pressure on existing network capacity and driving many to cite the need for additional spectrum.
- The driving force behind national broadband plans in other nations has been competitiveness, job creation and innovation.
- Successful national plans need four or more years of continuous effort and consistent funding sources.
- Broadband can be part of the solution to many of the nation’s challenges, creating economic and social benefits.
- Electronic health records, telemedicine, and mobile monitoring result in better, more affordable health care.
- Smart grids, smart homes and smart transportation, all of which require broadband, will be a critical part of our clean energy future.
- Delivery of government services, civic engagement, transparency in public policy can all be improved by broadband access and adoption.
- 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.
- 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.
- Consumers say online purchases save time and money, yet 39% have strong worries about giving out personal or credit card information.
- 82% of upper income users compared to only 29% of low-income users have made purchases online.
- There are no mobile, wireless broadband communications services that meet the public safety community’s specialized needs
- As of 2005, over 77 percent of Fortune 500 companies post jobs and accept applications solely online.
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