FCC broadband policy update raises funding questions | MSO Optics News | Lightwave Online

SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 By Stephen Hardy -- The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Broadband Task Force issued a status report on the FCC’s quest to deliver its National Broadband Plan to Congress by February 17, 2010. Among other points, the status report painted a picture of the current state of broadband deployment in the U.S. -- and raised questions about how much of a dent the current broadband stimulus effort would make in the country’s current deployment shortfall.

Using the 768-kbps downstream rate that defined basic broadband within the stimulus Notice of Funding Availability as a benchmark, the task force estimates that 3 to 6 million people qualify as unserved. The task force noted the cost to correct this shortfall would increase significantly if the data rate used to define broadband were to be raised...