FCC to present national broadband plan today

WASHINGTON - Communications regulators are scheduled to unveil today a sweeping proposal to overhaul U.S. broadband policy. Their aim: to bring affordable, high-speed Internet connections to all Americans and make access much faster for people who already have broadband.

It's not certain, though, whether the Federal Communications Commission can find the funding, corporate support, and legal clearance to carry out the vision.

Already, broadcasters oppose one key element of the proposal, which will call for reclaiming some airwaves now in the hands of TV stations and selling those frequencies to companies that deliver wireless Internet access.

The FCC also hopes to modernize the federal program that subsidizes telephone service in poor and rural areas, something Congress and federal regulators have been trying to do for years.

The FCC plan, mandated by last year's stimulus bill and being delivered to Congress today, will lay out an ambitious vision for wiring the entire country with broadband. It reflects the Obama administration's position that high-speed Internet access is no longer just a luxury but is critical for economic development, education, and health care.

"To me, broadband is an infrastructure challenge that's very akin to what we've faced in the past with telephones and electricity," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in an interview with the Associated Press.

The proposal will set a goal of connecting 100 million U.S. households by 2020 to broadband connections of 100 megabits per second - at least 20 times faster than most home connections now.

The plan also will call for every American community to have at least one anchor institution, such as a school, library, or hospital, that has ultra-high-speed Internet access - at least a gigabit per second, or 10 times faster than the 100 megabits per second envisioned for home connections.

In addition, the plan is designed to encourage more people to subscribe to broadband. About two-thirds of U.S. households have high-speed Internet access now. The FCC plan calls for increasing adoption rates to more than 90 percent of the population.