The week that saw the Federal Communications Commission submit to Congress its national broadband plan for a “robust and affordable Internet,” a public interest group is pushing the FCC for more transparency by seeking the release of closely-held data on broadband access rates.
The FCC responded by seeking public comment on the request by Free Press, a national nonprofit organization that advocates independent media ownership and universal access to communications. Free Press wants the FCC to release parts of its database that clarifies where and at what expense broadband providers offer their services.
In its request for public comment, the FCC states that: “Free Press asserts that grant of its requests will allow it ‘to conduct a more comprehensive analysis of subscribership to high-speed Internet access services’ that will ‘assist the Commission in making well-informed, data-driven policy choices.’ ”
Free Press, which praised the FCC’s just-released broadband goals, wants to make sure the agency means what it says in seeking wider accessibility and affordability to high-speed Internet services for more Americans.
The FCC said comments on the request by Free Press are due April 19. It will then seek responses to the comments by May 4.
Under its broadband plan, the FCC’s top goal is to have at least 100 million U.S. homes with affordable access to “actual download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second and actual upload speeds of at least 50 megabits per second.”
The plan’s most ambitious goal is for every American to have “affordable access to robust broadband service, and the means and skills to subscribe if they so choose.”
“But there are no easy paths to reach these goals,” said Free Press Executive Director Josh Silver. “To put the market to work for American consumers, the FCC will need to foster competition to drive down prices and drive up speeds. This will require confronting the market power of the cable and telephone giants that control the broadband market.”
In a statement on the Free Press website, Silver said the “problems caused by the lack of competition” are what prompted Congress to order the National Broadband Plan.
“While the FCC does take some important steps toward a new framework for competition policy, many of the critical questions are deferred for further review,” Silver said.
The FCC found that while broadband access and use have increased over the past decade, the nation “must do much more to connect all individuals and the economy to broadband’s transformative benefits.”
“In every era, America must confront the challenge of connecting the nation anew,” said Blair Levin, Executive Director of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative at the FCC. “Above all else, the plan is a call to action to meet that challenge for our era. If we meet it, we will have networks, devices, and applications that create new solutions to seemingly intractable problems.”
Nearly 100 million Americans lack broadband at home today, and 14 million Americans do not have access to broadband even if they want it, the FCC said. Only 42 percent of people with disabilities use broadband at home, while as few as 5 percent of people living on U.S. Tribal lands have access, the agency said.
“Meanwhile, the cost of digital exclusion for the student unable to access the Internet to complete a homework assignment, or for the unemployed worker who can’t search for a job online, continues to grow,” the FCC said.
