October 20th, 2009
FCC publishes rural broadband report
The FCC released its report on Rural Broadband Strategy. The report is classic government documentation with more footnotes on pages than actual content. The 77 page report was commissioned based on the 2008 FARM Bill law. (Hey, I don’t make this stuff up!) I understand the need for the FCC to work with other agencies, but what were senators or congressmen (and women) thinking ….
“ law requires the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, in coordination with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), to submit “a report describing a comprehensive rural broadband strategy” to Congress.”
The report says the same things we all knew: That the U.S. Government wants to subsidize the cost to deploy broadband to rural areas with incentives. That it needs more reports and analyses and that there are a few application forms to fill out to receive grants. That there’s $7.2 billion available. It gives a reasonably accurate analysis on past, current and future technologies to facilitate broadband Internet access to communities that are currently under-served. What it doesn’t tell you is how it should be designed or how it will be regulated. That probably requires another report commissioned by Congress in concert with the Environmental Protection Agency or something.
| 10/21/09
