Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
By Cody Williams, Special Correspondent, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, July 2, 2009 – Blair Levin, recently appointed to head up the national broadband strategy at the Federal Communications Commission, laid out the agency’s framework for this plan – due in 230 days – at Thursday’s open meeting.
The agency’s broadband plan will interact with other congressional mandates, including the Broadband Data Improvement Act, and an upcoming report on high-speed adoption, among others.
The agency said it would merge the regulatory process for the regulatory process on high-speed adoption (also called the “Section 706” report after that portion of the 1996 Telecommunications Act) and the national broadband plan.
Comments on the 706 report will be considered in the national broadband plan, and vice versa. This will help create ongoing institutional knowledge on broadband, Levin said, which can serve to inform ongoing policy deliberations. The plan will include input from each bureau at the FCC.
The national broadband plan asks four questions: (1) What is current state of broadband deployment, affordability, and other factors?; (2) What is the near-term solution if there were no dramatic change in government policy? This would take into account technological advances including the wireless Long Term Evolution standard, the cable industry DOCSIS 3.0 technology,...
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