Broadband is good for the country but many deployment barriers exist. This is according to the task force created by the FCC to look into what gaps exist in the nation's policies, programs and practices. The goal is universal broadband adoption. The broadband service should be affordable, robust and widely available.The task force produced a list of the challenges from about 40 workshops and filed hearings. Over 10,000 comments on the National Broadband Plan Notice of Inquiry and 5 public notices were analyzed to complete the study. The process is ongoing and will include a new survey that will focus on those households that do not subscribe to a broadband service.
In the near term, the FCC is tasked with developing a range of options for closing the broadband adoption gap. This task is required as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. A National Broadband Plan is scheduled to be submitted to Congress by February 17, 2010.
The FCC document of November 18, 2009, "FCC Identifies Critical Gaps in Path to Future Universal Broadband" (PDF) describes the many roadblocks that are inhibiting the further deployment of broadband services.
The major factors limiting broadband adoption are:
* The Federal Universal Service Fund (USF) is not focused on broadband expansion. The $7 billion fund mostly supports phone service. The four programs are not coordinated to maximize broadband deployment. There is inefficiency in the fund awards and application.
* The demographics for broadband adoption are skewed toward high income families. Over 90% of families with incomes above $100,000 have broadband service. Rural households, low income and minority families have a much lower adoption rate.
* The consumer information gap produces confusion about the competing services and their performance. This undermines competition, innovation and choice. This is definitely the fault of the service providers.
* The wireless industry has a spectrum problem. Transmission speed is limited. Reallocating spectrum will help. But the spectrum must also service public safety, the smart grid, telemedicine and civic applications. There will remain competition about who gets how much spectrum.
* The cost of deployment can be high. Rural connections can cost up to as three times as much urban/suburban connections. There is inefficient coordination when digging trenches for cabling which increases the cost of cable installation.
* An interesting problem is the TV set-top-box. 99% of households have a TV while 76% have a PC. This leads to the adoption of the TV as the access device. There is not any competition for the set-top-box, which limits innovation.
* Users are concerned about the control of their information. Ensuring privacy and security will encourage greater use. However, there have been many incursions by the providers is this area because they want to own the personal content and use it how they please, mainly to generate revenue.
There is no limit to the number of issues that will continue to emerge. The consumers have their goals and so do businesses. At odds with some of the goals are the service providers, wired and wireless, who have their own agendas that do not necessarily complement the consumers and business users. Expect that not only will technologists get involved, but that there will be plenty of politicking too. Expect that the heat will continue to rise before February 17, 2010. Once the plan is produced, there will more conflict because some interest groups will not be satisfied.
