[1st-mile-nm] FCC Broadband Deployment Evaluation

[rl at radlab.com]

Last week the FCC announced that it would undertake an evaluation of broadband
deployment in the U.S., as a step towards setting broadband policy for the
future.
The FCC's Press Release follows, and is attached.
Richard
-------

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:			NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:
April 16, 2007				Mark Wigfield, 202-418-0253
					Email: mark.wigfield at fcc.gov


FCC BEGINS INQUIRIES ON BROADBAND DATA AND DEPLOYMENT

Washington, D.C. ? The Federal Communications Commission today announces two
proceedings focused on evaluating broadband deployment.
The first is a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) under Section 706 of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 into whether broadband services are being
deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.  The second is a
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) exploring ways to collect information the
Commission needs to set broadband policy in the future.

  Both actions recognize the critical importance of broadband services to the
nation?s present and future prosperity.
The NOI is the fifth such inquiry conducted by the Commission under Section 706
of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which requires the Commission to
determine whether broadband services are being deployed to all Americans in a
reasonable and timely fashion.  Among the questions the Commission asks in the
NOI is how to define broadband in light of the rapid technological changes
occurring in the marketplace, including the development of higher speed
services and new broadband platforms.  The Commission will also focus on the
availability of broadband, including in rural and other hard-to-serve areas; on
whether consumers are adopting new services; and on the level of competition in
the marketplace.  The Commission asks what can be done to accelerate the
rollout of broadband services, and seeks comment on current investment trends
in the industry.  The Commission also seeks comment on external data sources
that shed light on broadband prices and the extent to which consumers have a
choice of competing providers of broadband service in the United States,
ideally on a house-by-house and business-by-business basis, as well as
comparable data on speed, price, availability, and adoption in other countries.

The NPRM seeks comment on whether to modify collection of speed tier information
and how to improve the data collected about wireless broadband Internet access
service.  The NPRM also asks how the Commission can best collect information
about subscribership to interconnected voice over Internet Protocol service, or
VoIP.  Finally, the NPRM also seeks comment on how the Commission can develop a
more accurate picture of current broadband deployment (including by
extrapolating from more accurate estimates of representative urban,
metropolitan, exurban, low-income, tribal, and rural areas), as well as gather
information on price, other factors that affect consumer uptake of broadband
services, and international comparisons.

Action by the Commission, March 12, 2007, by Notice of Inquiry (FCC 07-21) and
February 26, 2007, by Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC 07-17).

Dockets:  07-45 (NOI); 07-38 (NPRM).

Wireline Competition Bureau Staff Contact for NOI:  Jeremy Miller at
202-418-1507, jeremy.miller at fcc.gov; for NPRM: Ellen Burton at 202-418-0958,
ellen.burton at fcc.gov.


-FCC-
News about the Federal Communications Commission can also be found
on the Commission?s web site www.fcc.gov.





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