FCC Chairman Previews National Broadband Plan

February 17, 2010 By Matt Williams

The National Broadband Plan to be released in March will set a high bar for broadband coverage: 100 million households at 100 megabits per second (Mbps), with broadband adoption as a whole at 90 percent.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski set the targets in remarks Tuesday at the National Association of regulatory Utility Commissioners NARUC Conference in Washington, D.C., during which he laid out a broader preview of what will be in the National Broadband Plan.

Genachowski said the nation needs to significantly increase broadband adoption rates (currently at 65 percent, he said) as well as build out high-speed broadband.

"And we should stretch beyond 100 megabits. The U.S. should lead the world in ultra high-speed broadband test beds as fast, or faster, than anywhere in the world," he said.

Reaching that goal will require the U.S. to surpass broadband investments made by other countries -- at a cost of tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, analysts say. Genachowski said the broadband plan will recommend that the federal government encourage public-private partnerships and utilize "government rights of way and conduits" to make building broadband cheaper.

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