Specifically, data released Thursday addressed the "national purposes" section of the plan, or how broadband will help American competitiveness.
Last year's stimulus bill required the FCC to deliver a national broadband plan to Congress by Feb. 17. The commission later requested a one-month extension of that deadline, and the plan is now due on March 17.
The FCC identified six challenges in rolling out nationwide broadband: creating jobs; improving healthcare and controlling costs; providing more educational opportunities; promoting energy independence and efficiency; enhancing government performance and increasing civic engagement; and increasing public safety and homeland security.
On the jobs front, the FCC's plan calls for an online job training and placement platform, as well as public-private partnerships for small business technology training.
The plan also calls for a reduction in regulatory barriers when it comes to e-health initiatives. The FCC suggested revamping the Rural Health Care Program to provide health providers with money for broadband deployment and expand eligibility.
The commission also wants to cut the red tape when it comes to educational efforts by increasing the supply of digital content and online learning systems and promoting digital literacy for students and teachers. The FCC also suggested an upgrabe to the beleagured E-Rate grant program to allow for additional connectivity, flexibility and efficiency.
"Every classroom in every school in America should be connected to broadband capable of online learning and remote tutoring," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said during a Thursday commission meeting. "Every kid in America should have a real opportunity in school to become digitally literate."
To ensure that its efforts are not an energy drain, the FCC wants to make sure that broadband is integrated into the smart grid by promoting and improving commercial broadband networks, better coordinating and standardizing private utility networks, and enabling partnerships with public safety networks.
The agency also wants to make sure that consumers have access to real-time and historical digital energy data on state and federal Web sites.
On that note, the plan also calls for the increased publication of government data online and greater use of social media, as well as more effective use of federal assets as it relates to broadband deployment.
Finally, the plans tackles security, and calls for the construction of an interoperable wireless network of public safety officials, as well as next-generation 911 networks – something that has been on the government to-do list since after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Earlier this week, Genachowski set the aggressive goal of delivering 100-Mbit/s broadband service to 100 million Americans by the year 2020, the same day that a U.S. Department of Commerce study found that a significant portion of U.S. consumers were still not online.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Chloe Albanesius
Quelle/Source: PC Magazine, 19.02.2010
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