Broadband for All or Some?

Last week the FCC officially announced its decision to create a national broadband policy. While it’s a great idea in theory, not everyone is cheering quite yet.  According to a recent article in Telephony, service providers are expressing concern about the time, money and resources they may have to invest up front, not to mention how to make these new services more attractive to customers once the technology has been implemented.  I think unless a proper strategy is put in place, the project could become a recipe for waste.

The Washington Post reports that the government has included $7.2 billion in stimulus funds for broadband development, mostly geared toward rural areas, but the same article states that many Americans deem computers “unaffordable” and Internet content as “not relevant to their lives.”  Unless the government and providers can work together to change mindsets, this could mean millions of dollars tied up in unused infrastructure. And what good is “broadband for everyone,” if not everyone is taking advantage of it?

The FCC’s target for the national policy is February 2010 and over the next 60 days the public will be able to submit comments to the agency, then reply comments will be open for another 30 days.  Hopefully we can come together as a nation of users, legislators and providers to come up with an effective strategy.  In the meantime, I can only hope FCC Chairman Michael J. Copps is evaluating network planning strategies to determine the most cost-effective and useful way to deliver on this promise.  Maybe that means “broadband for some?”