“If we have the political will, we can reclaim the licensed and unlicensed spectrum our wireless networks need to thrive.”
That’s language not likely to make broadcasters sleep easy, especially since it is coming from the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, writing in a commentary in the Washington Post this weekend as he prepared to deliver the FCC’s “National Broadband Plan” to Congress.
“We are not even close to realizing the full potential of high-speed Internet, or ‘broadband,’ access,” he wrote. “Universally deployed broadband networks can be America’s engine for enduring job creation, economic growth and tremendous improvements and savings in education, health care and energy conservation.”
The chairman, an Obama appointee considered a close political ally of the president, wrote that every American should have access to “all essential broadband services at home,” and that to help business, “we must substantially increase the capabilities of our networks. This means driving toward one gigabit to every community in America, through libraries, schools and community colleges; and creating the world’s largest market for affordable, very high-speed broadband — a ‘100 Squared’ initiative of affordable 100 megabits per second to 100 million households — so that inventors around the world will flock to our platform.”
He also said American “must lead the world in the speed and reach of our mobile networks” and that every first responder should have access to a nationwide, wireless, interoperable broadband public safety network.
Read it here.
