Key findings of the most recent FCC Broadband Report include the following:
AT&T Announces Plan to Deploy FTTH in Additional Markets: Borrows page from Google playbook by requesting municipality concessions
Julius Genachowski's Assessment of US Leadership in Broadband: FCC Chairman: Broadband Goals are Speed, Capacity, and Ubiquity
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has been signalling his intentions to spur broadband competition and raise the stakes in the broadband industry starting in late 2014. In a series of policy speeches outlining four FCC actions which span multiple policy areas under FCC jurisdiction, he listed the following priorities:
Protect Existing Competition: "Our effort opposing shrinking the number of nationwide wireless providers from four to three is an example. As applied to fixed networks, the Commission’s Order on tech transition experiments similarly starts with the belief that changes in network technology should not be a license to limit competition."
Obama Executive Order Targets Broadband Deployment and Spurs High Speed Access: "Dig Once" Initiative and US-IGNITE Announced by White House
Encourage Further Competition: "Again, a good example comes from wireless broadband. The “reserve” spectrum in the Broadcast Incentive Auction will provide opportunities for wireless providers to gain access to important low-band spectrum that could enhance their ability to compete. Similarly, the entire Open Internet proceeding is about ensuring that the Internet remains free from barriers erected by last-mile providers."
Benefits of Broadband: Why is broadband access so important?
Create New Competition: "For instance, our efforts to expand the amount of unlicensed spectrum creates alternative competitive pathways. And we understand the petitions from two communities asking us to pre-empt state laws against citizen-driven broadband expansion to be in the same category, which is why we are looking at that question so closely."
- 17 percent of all Americans (55 million people) lack access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps service.
- 53 percent of rural Americans (22 million people) lack access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps.
- By contrast, only 8 percent of urban Americans lack access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps broadband.
- Rural America continues to be underserved at all speeds: 20 percent lack access even to service at 4 Mbps/1 Mbps, down only 1 percent from 2011, and 31 percent lack access to 10 Mbps/1 Mbps, down only 4 percent from 20
- 63 percent of Americans living on Tribal lands (2.5 million people) lack access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps broadband
- 85 percent living in rural areas of Tribal lands (1.7 million people) lack access.
- 63 percent of Americans living in U.S. territories (2.6 million people) lack access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps broadband.
- 79 percent of those living in rural territorial areas (880,000 people) lack access.
AT&T Announces Plan to Deploy FTTH in Additional Markets: Borrows page from Google playbook by requesting municipality concessions
- Overall, the gap in availability of broadband at 25/3 closed by only 3 percentage points last year, from 20% lacking access in 2012 to 17% in 2013
- Overall, the broadband availability gap closed by only 3 percent last year.
- Americans living in rural and urban areas adopt broadband at similar rates where 25 Mbps/ 3 Mbps service is available, 28 percent in rural areas and 30 percent in urban areas.
- Approximately 35 percent of schools lack access to fiber, and thus likely lack access to broadband at the Commission’s shorter term benchmark (adopted in its July 2014 E-rate Modernization Order) of 100 Mbps per 1,000 users, and even fewer have access at the long term goal of 1 Gbps per 1,000 users.
Julius Genachowski's Assessment of US Leadership in Broadband: FCC Chairman: Broadband Goals are Speed, Capacity, and Ubiquity
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has been signalling his intentions to spur broadband competition and raise the stakes in the broadband industry starting in late 2014. In a series of policy speeches outlining four FCC actions which span multiple policy areas under FCC jurisdiction, he listed the following priorities:
Protect Existing Competition: "Our effort opposing shrinking the number of nationwide wireless providers from four to three is an example. As applied to fixed networks, the Commission’s Order on tech transition experiments similarly starts with the belief that changes in network technology should not be a license to limit competition."
Obama Executive Order Targets Broadband Deployment and Spurs High Speed Access: "Dig Once" Initiative and US-IGNITE Announced by White House
Encourage Further Competition: "Again, a good example comes from wireless broadband. The “reserve” spectrum in the Broadcast Incentive Auction will provide opportunities for wireless providers to gain access to important low-band spectrum that could enhance their ability to compete. Similarly, the entire Open Internet proceeding is about ensuring that the Internet remains free from barriers erected by last-mile providers."
Benefits of Broadband: Why is broadband access so important?
Create New Competition: "For instance, our efforts to expand the amount of unlicensed spectrum creates alternative competitive pathways. And we understand the petitions from two communities asking us to pre-empt state laws against citizen-driven broadband expansion to be in the same category, which is why we are looking at that question so closely."
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